Oh What Shadow Clones Can DO
by Tactition101
Summary: What happens when Mizuki doesn't hate Naruto but helps him? What happens when said chunnin helps Naruto gain the shadow clone before he graduates? Very storng and smart Naruto is what. Rated t just to be safe due to possible language. Update Time Frame is roughly once every eight weeks.
1. Sheer potential unleashed

Naruto Fan Fiction story

Plot summary: What if Mizuki and Iruka realized Naruto's problem when they were first teaching about clones? What if Mizuki wasn't traitorous, but instead was supportive? And what happens when Naruto learns about the kyubi during his academy years and right after goes nuts with shadow clone justu learning? VERY smart/strong Naruto.

AN: good at coming up with fight scenes in head, don't know about on paper. Due to this, will post references u can look at to understand the combat moves. For instance, flip then push off would be like goku from dbz flipping, landing on his feet and with one push go at least five feet before having to land again. Also, I'm messing a little bit with Naruto's age here so that he is one year older than the rest of the rookie nine and in the same class as team Gai.

Story begins: Fifth Academy Year (in my fic, this is second to last. Making him twelve and starting at seven) Academy Training Grounds

Every one was excited. And why shouldn't they be? They were finally going to learn the clone justu. (sorry all you Japanese fans, while I may add some Japanese, mainly some honorifics, I'm sticking to English justu simply due to the fact that my Japanese literally sucks.) Mizuki and Iruka had just gone over how to perform the justu and everyone was seemingly getting the hang of it relatively quickly, that is everyone except one particular orange clad blonde.

"Hah! Look at that loser! He can't even get it to stand up!" Shouted one particularly mean spirited student who took great pleasure at Naruto's continuous failed attempts to do the simple justu.

'Hm' Mizuki thought, 'wonder if it's cause of that fox in him, maybe…'

"Hey Iruka."

"yeah?" came the response.

"Think maybe Naruto has to much chakra? I mean, he always is the one with the most stamina."

"You know, that _would_ explain it." Iruka said.

"So why not take it up a notch?" Mizuki asked with a grin.

Iruka got the same grin and said "Why not? Hey Naruto! Try this instead." and proceeded to show Naruto how to do the shadow clone justu. To say that Naruto was ecstatic that he could actually do this justu was an understatement. Then Mizuki, being the good teacher he is took it even further by explaining to Naruto about the learning ability of shadow clones. To prove his point, Mizuki made a shadow clone of his own and took the clone Naruto made out of earshot around the building and proceeded to tell him of a VERY good idea for a prank. (It was no secret in this village that he like the kid's style of making people laugh.)

After punching the blonde's clone to dispel it and dispelling itself, the real Naruto automatically got a gleam in his eye and said "never thought of that thanks!"

Mizuki just grinned while the rest could only wonder what madness would soon be unleashed. Mizuki then took Naruto to see how many he could do, but stopped him at 200.

"Dang Naruto! You're a real monster when it comes to chakra." 'Though given the fact what he suppresses each day it's no surprise.' "let's go back."

"OK"

The two went back to the rest of the class who was done and Iruka asked the one question that started all of the sheer bad ass action in the coming years. "So how did it go?"

"Naruto?" Mizuki asked.

"Yeah?"

"Show them."

"Shadow Clone Justu!" Instantly every student's mouth was at their lowest limit as literally hundreds of Narutos appeared all around them.

"Well, heh heh, guess that answers _that _question." Iruka said not believing the sheer size of the kid's chakra reserves if he could pull this off.

"Yeah" Mizuki said, "hey Naruto send your clones to the library and start learning anything you can find. It'll be a good way to help you with your grades." Oh how right he was.

End Chapter.

Author's Notes: This has been WAY over due. Therefore, before I post new material. I'm doing a quick run through and correcting what I can. Please be patient with this as I should have an actual update soon enough.


	2. Information Overload

I do not own Naruto, hence the reason why this story is on this website.

Chapter 2: Information Overload

"Naruto, have your clones go to the library and start reading everything they can. It'll definitely help your grades" Mizuki said.

This one statement is probably the one thing that truly set Naruto up for what he would soon become.

While Naruto sent his clones to the library, he and the rest of the students went back inside and started to have their history lesson.

However, not one hour into the lesson, Naruto just suddenly got the deer in the headlights look and proceeded to introduce his face to the desk he was sitting at.

"Oi, Iruka-sensei! Naruto just kicked the bucket!"

Amongst cheers following this student's statements, both Iruka and Mizuki just sighed while Mizuki said, "I thought I told him not to dispel them all at once. Oh well." \

Iruka instantly used his trademark big head justu to get the students to calm down and proceeded to tell the kids the drawbacks of the shadow clone justu. But unknown to everyone else, it wasn't just information overload that caused Naruto's blackout.

Naruto's Mindscape: Kyubbi's Cage (sp?)

"Where am I" Naruto asked looking around. He was in what appeared to be some kind of sewer in front of a great gate that seemed to be kept closed with a sheet of paper with the kanji for seal written on it.

"**Ah, so my landlord has finally come to check on his tenant eh?"** A voice that sounded both extremely amused and yet terribly sad at once came from the direction of the gate.

"W-who said that?" Naruto asked, just a _little _bit nervous. (And seriously, who can blame the kid? That voice sounded like it came from a giant!)

Little by little, a great shape appeared behind the gates. It looked to be as tall as the Hokage Mountain, maybe even bigger, was red in color, and appeared to be a fox with instead not one tail, but nine swishing around in grace full arcs.

Upon seeing the tails, Naruto had one thought. 'Oh crap' His actual reaction however was much more bold. "You! What are you doing here? And for that matter, where the heck is here anyway?"

The great fox just sighed, and said **"Naruto to answer your questions, this is your mindscape, or your inner mind. As for why I am here, your father sealed me in here when I attacked your village."**

Naruto was not happy to hear this. "So you're the reason why I'm treated like dirt? Figur- wait, did you say my father? I thought the fourth-?" Naruto's eyes suddenly went bug-eyed and he almost had a heart attack from sheer excitement.

Luckily, the fox saw this and said **"Focus Naruto! And let me explain what happened!"**

Naruto instantly grew quite at the fox's tone. **"Much better, now let me explain. Yes your father was the fourth hokage for this village. However, unlike what the village believes, I did not want to destroy the village back then."**

"Then what were you doing here?"

"**I'm getting to that. You see, on that day, I was in my den with my mate and kit. This man, Orochimaru, decided to have the nerve to show up and ask for the way to become immortal. I immediately told him to leave since he was foolish to even think that I would share how I was immortal. He left, but not before slaying my mate, who was still relatively weak from giving birth last year, and my kit, who had yet to obtain the strength to become immortal. In a rage, I went to the hidden leaf village to get information on this man since he had worn the village's symbol. I was only going to ask for the man not go on a rampage when I ran into another man, one Madara Uchiha. This man was able to put me under a very strong genjustu due to the fact that I was so angry. He then proceeded to order me to attack the village, which I had no choice to do. So you see Naruto, I had no intention of attacking your village and I truly am sorry for the pain I have caused you."**

(People have said that this explanation is lame and in truth it may be. However, it DOES move the story along.)

After saying this, Kyubi lowered his head so that he could be as close to Naruto's eye level as possible. He then took a slight breath ruffling Naruto's hair in the process and continued. **"In order to make it up to you, I am willing to become your teacher. Those two from the academy are capable enough. However, they have a whole class to teach. There is also the fact that I can help you a lot with knowledge on justu and chakra control, which believe me, due to the vast amounts of chakra you have, is a must. I can also give you a summoning contract and access to some of my own chakra. However, if you are going to use it, we must train you so that you can handle it without going on a rampage in the process of tapping into it."**

To say that Naruto was impressed is an understatement. "So what do I have to do?" he asked.

"**First, wake up, your teachers are probably worried. When you do tell them that your roommate talked to you and that you need to have a word with the hokage."**

"Why not just say I had a conversation with you?"

"**And spook the entire class?"**

"Good point."

"**Better get going."**

Back in the classroom

It had been roughly thirty minutes in the outside world when suddenly a light groan could be heard coming from Naruto's spot. Both Mizuki and Iruka were surprised that Naruto had woken up so early, and proceeded (I like that word don't I?) to tell him so.

"Naruto, your awake? I would have thought you would have been out till morning at least."

"Yeah well, I had a little chat with my roommate. Seems I need to talk with the hokage after school lets out."

Iruka and Mizuki shared a worried glance.

"Did you just say roommate?" Iruka asked, getting nervous.

"Yes." Naruto replied doing his absolute best to keep a cool face while on the inside his mind was going all over the place thinking about what the fox had said.

"Hey Sensei! What's the dobe talking about?"

"That doesn't concern you. Naruto, when as soon as class is over, Iruka and I will take you to the hokage."

"Yes Mizuki-sensei."

End chapter.

Author's Note: I know, still a little short, however there is a reason for this. You see, in this story, Naruto and Kakashi were a part of another team for a short while before they took on team 7 in the next year. In my head, I really didn't focus that much on the previous team, just a few flashbacks and maybe one or two conversations between the other two members and Sakura and Sasuke. I have not been able to come up with a name for either member. This is where you guys come in. Before I continue, I need a boy's and girl's name for Naruto's first teammates. You have two days to give me any ideas you have. After that I'm going dumpster diving of sorts. Like last time R&R, and I swear that next chapter is going to be longer. On one final note, Naruto gets really good at d-rank, and well at least once or twice show Sasuke up. This is NOT due to jealousy, merely that he thinks Sasuke needs to get that proverbial stick out of his rear end. See you all in two days.


	3. Let the madness begin

Chapter 3

Let the Madness Begin

"speech"

'thought'

"**demon speech"**

'**demon thought'**

Author's notes: hey guys, sorry for the long wait. It was a combination of no one giving me ideas, and myself coming up blank as well as having a bit of a hectic week. Seriously, you guys have no idea what heat does to a construction worker's energy. Also thanks to those who reviewed about my writing style, I will do my best to write better. And as for the Orochimaru review, I swear there is a reason for it. I am going to try to update at least once a week, but for now, enjoy chapter three.

P.S. For the names of the teammates, I'm going with translations of my name as well as my sister's name.

Matt - Matto

Heather - Heza (pronounced Hezaa)

This is the website I used: .

The Hokage was working in his office, doing the bane of all Hokages, paperwork. (old joke I know) When he heard a knocking at the door, he was glad for the interruption.

"Come in."

In walked Naruto, Iruka, and Mizuki, all with serious faces.

'Oh boy, what did he do this time?' The hokage thought. "All right, what did Naruto here do this time?"

"It's not what he did hokage-sama, it's what he found out." Iruka said, Never once losing that serious face.

'Uh oh' Sarutobi thought, 'this cannot be good.' "Found out?" the old man asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Sigh, Old Man, I found about the Kyuubi and who my parents were. The big guy wants to have a word with you inside my Mind Scape I think he called it."

To say that the hokage was shocked was an understatement. He had of course planned on telling Naruto about the fox and his parents for sure, but not for around another decade. He was debating whether or not to have Naruto's seal checked to see if it was breaking, but first decided to see what that damned fox wanted.

"Very well then Naruto. Iruka, Mizuki, as his teachers and the ones he told you about this, I want you to come as well."

"Very well, hokage-sama." Mizuki said, trying to hide his nervousness. After all, they were going to meet with the one creature that was hell bent on destroying the village around eight years ago.

The hokage walked over to Naruto and kneeled down to his eye level and placed his hand on Naruto's head. Iruka and Mizuki placed theirs over their leader's. For a brief moment, nothing happened. Then the four's eyes flickered and closed, signifying that they were now in Naruto's Mindscape.

Naruto's Mindscape

The three adult's found themselves looking around the mindscape in varying states of confusion. They knew that the mindscape was defined by the person's outlook, but it was also usually along more…cheerful places, such as a palace, or a grove of sakura trees. This though, looked like it was a more of a cross between a sewer and a bunker than a place to find inner peace. All three had similar thoughts when they saw this place.

'My god, what could have made Naruto come up with this place?' Iruka thought noticing a set of pipes running along the walls out the doorway.

'Wonder why his mind set it up like this. Looks almost like a bunker to go in when an army is coming for you.' Mizuki thought, then looking at the boy, realized that just might be exactly why it was like this.

The third hokage was the most shocked of the three. 'Naruto is normally extremely happy and so full of energy. Is this really what he feels like most of the time?'

Naruto wasn't that surprised considering he didn't know about how a mind scape normally looks like or how it reflected what was truly going on in his mind. He was more interested in the cage where the giant fox was looking out at the group.

"**Ah, so you finally came."**

The three adults spun around looked at the fox's feet, and slowly raised their heads to see the fox beginning to grin at all of them. Needless to say, all three were getting extremely nervous, even if on a subconscious level for the hokage. While he had absolute faith in Minato's sealing skills, the fact that the fox had talked to Naruto so soon concerned him. The two teachers were much more nervous considering they were in front of the creature that did it's best to wipe the hidden leaf village of the map.

"Yes, we came. Naruto said that you wished to speak to me." Sarutobi said, wondering just what this was about exactly.

"**That is correct. You see, I would like to teach the young kit here a few things."**

"Oh, and why might I ask would a hundred foot tall demon fox want to train a small eight year old boy?" The old man asked, getting ready to get them all out of there as fast as he could if things turned sour.

The great demon lord sighed, **"Because it is my fault for why those idiots you have sworn to protect are constantly abusing the child. If I had been in more control of my emotions, this never would have happened. Besides, I have grown quite fond of the kit."**

Iruka and Mizuki were watching this trying to figure out what the fox meant by emotions and teaching when Sarutobi spoke again.

"What do you mean by more control of emotions? And how do I know you won't use this as a means to escape?"

The fox just laughed and then said **"Trust me old man, if I wanted to, I could have escaped anytime I wanted to. Your predecessor was aware of what was going on that night, or at least on a small level. Therefore he made it so that I could interact with the kit a lot easier that most so called tailed beasts with their containers. As for the emotions, well, why don't I give a demonstration first before I explain."**

Right after he said that, Kyuubi no Kitsune, Demon lord of the foxes, did two things that would forever shock the four humans. Right off the bat, he started shrinking at a tremendous rate, quickly turning from a hundred foot tall fox into one closer to the height of the hokage's waist. But it didn't stop there, while the fox kept shrinking, it started to turn into a human as well. One that was just as tall as Sarutobi, and looking just as old. (Think the manifestation form of Ichigo's sword in Bleach, only no wrapping over either of the eyes.)

But this wasn't the only thing that shocked the group. Right after he finished changing, red chakra suddenly shot out of his body and started to form a very large cloud towards the back of the cage. After it left the man stepped straight through the bars, causing all three of the men to get in front of Naruto keeping him behind them.

"**Don't worry, your hokage definitely knew his seals. He made it so that either my chakra or my human form could go through the seal, but not both at the same time."**

The adults didn't know what to think. Not only did the fox just turn into a human, but he just walked straight through the seal without a single problem. Naruto was just as surprised.

"Cool! How come you didn't do that the first time?" He asked.

The fox knelt down getting closer to Naruto's level. **"(chuckles) Because there was no reason to, kit."**

A moment later, the hokage was finally able to get over his initial shock of how the demon was able to leave the cage like that. "You said you were going to explain about that night?"

The demon nodded and proceeded to explain how Orochimaru had come to his cave and demanded to know how to become immortal, and afterwards how he killed his family. How afterwards he followed him to get revenge, and finally how he ended up getting trapped in Madara Uchiha's genjustu.

It took a while for the hokage to absorb all this and to fully trust the demon lord, but eventually agreed to let the fox train Naruto. The key factor was the fact that the old man could tell that the fox saw the kid as his own, in spirit if not blood. After hammering out all the details, the four left the mind scape with a lot to think about.


	4. Leaving The Academy

Chapter 4: Leaving The Academy

Author's Notes: hey guys, one of my reviewers had asked me if I was sticking to the academy years for much longer. The answer to that question is no. As the title suggest, this will be the last academy chapter. And I say first time because as I've said, Naruto is one year ahead of Sakura and Sasuke. Also, like I said last time, Naruto's first two teammates are named after me and my sister, just in Japanese. And now without further ado, here is chapter 4.

Matto - Matt/Matthew

Heza - Heather (pronounced Hezaa)

Hokage's Office

For a moment, the office remained completely silent until at once all four occupants snapped their eyes open and took a big breath almost exactly together. The hokage, just like with their meeting a few moments ago was the first to speak.

"Well Naruto, looks like you're going to have your hands full for the next few years."

"Yeah." Naruto was still was thinking about what had happened inside the one area that most people do not want people at, their minds.

Mizuki, guessing at what the young blond was thinking about decided to get the kid's mind back to the outside world.

"Come on Naruto, Let's get something to eat at Ichiraku's." ' If that don't get him, nothing will.'

"OK"

'Well, it's better than nothing.' Mizuki thought. "Hey Iruka, I still want to see how many clones Naruto can make. Considering that he is probably going to be learning a lot from now on, it would be a good idea to see how many he's capable of. He can have a shadow clone in class so that way he doesn't miss anything."

"Sounds good to me. Just try not to overdo it with him." Iruka said, thinking that if he knew anything about Naruto, then Mizuki would be in for a quite a day tomorrow.

"Don't worry, I won't."

With that, the meeting was pretty much over, and Naruto, Mizuki, and Iruka left.

The Next Day Forest of Death

Mizuki had gone to Naruto's apartment early the next morning in order to make sure he remembered about the test of how many clones he could make. Naruto was at first a little groggy but soon woke up, and upon leaving, sent a shadow clone to the academy to make sure he didn't miss anything from Iruka's class. Afterwards, the student and teacher pair went to the one place that Mizuki knew they would not be interrupted. The Forest of Death.

"All right Naruto, lets see how many we can get. I know you can get at least 200 so lets start there and then start adding to the number."

Naruto nodded, and put his hand into the proper hand sign and said "Shadow Clone Justu!" The pair were instantly surrounded by two hundred clones.

Mizuki nodded and then continued. "All right Naruto, lets get started. Here's what I want you to do, you're going to be doing a sort of breathing exercise. I want you to breathe out as much as you can, then inhale as much as you can. Each time you do a cycle of this, I want you to create fifty clones until you feel like you can't keep making them. Think you can do that?"

Naruto nodded and started doing the exercise and creating clones in between each breath. It wasn't long until the two hundred clones quickly turned into two thousand. Mizuki put a stop to it when it quickly became apparent that Naruto would have no trouble if he got in a fight due to the fact that he obviously could call on a virtual army whenever he need to. Mizuki then had Naruto start dispelling the clones in groups of increasing number to get him used to the effects. When the first batch of clones dispersed, one particular clone a few miles a way had one thing to say.

Academy: Iruka's Classroom

"Holy Shit."

"Naruto! I do not see how us learning about the history of this village requires that language! Would you mind telling us what does?" Mizuki asked with a vein throbbing on his forehead.

The clone just shook his head and said. "Boss just summoned somewhere around two thousand clones."

The entire class was stunned at this. Iruka was the first to get over his shock and said "Well at least he won't have any trouble in fights. He'll just overwhelm them with sheer numbers."

Back in the Forest of Death

It took a while, but soon Naruto only had around twenty clones left around him and Mizuki.

"All right Naruto, it's time to get serious. Up until now, we were just seeing how many clones you could make and getting you used to the information they send. While it's true that them just standing around isn't much info to get back, it is information none the less and on a very big scale as well due to numbers. What we are going to do now is a more… conservative method of using them. I'm going to explain the tree climbing exercise to you, and you'll have half of your clones work on that. After that, I'm going to go over some Taijustu with the rest, and they'll work on that. As for you yourself, we'll be working on your physical self with some exercises since clones don't transfer physical developments."

Naruto nodded and with that, the student teacher pair quickly got to work. Naruto and Mizuki spent most of the day doing laps along the fence surrounding the forest, stopping only for short resting breaks and lunch. They did not stop until Naruto suddenly got memories from the clone sent to the academy showing that the academy was over for the day and that the clone had dispelled itself.

When that happened, Mizuki told Naruto to dispel the rest of his clones one at a time, doing the same to dispel them as he did to bring them out using the breathing exercise. Naruto was glad he took Mizuki's advise, since because the clones had been going at it non stop, they had a lot of information to be downloaded.

Mizuki assured Naruto that over time he would be able to absorb more at a lot faster pace. After that day for the rest of his academy years, Naruto would always send a clone to the academy so that he could get in more physical training while he had more clones constantly working on justu knowledge and chakra control.

But it wasn't just training in the outside world that Naruto did, but also inner mind training as well. Every weekend, when the academy wasn't in session, Naruto would be in his inner mind almost constantly being taught by the Kyuubi. It wasn't long before the fox gave Naruto the summoning contract and had him introduced to most of the foxes, even going to the point where he was reverse summoned to the mountain where the foxes lived for a whole summer to be able to get to know all of the foxes better so that way he could work with them effortlessly.

One year later, and Naruto was one of the strongest ninja ranked chunnin and below. Not only was his chakra control one of the best out there, but due to all of the training he was able to do thanks to having a clone substitute for him in the classes, he was physically the strongest out of his class.

And it didn't stop there. With the knowledge of his father's nickname, Naruto not only focused on strength, but speed as well.

Although this wasn't a good thing for everyone. You see, Naruto still had a tendency for pranks, and although his shadow clones made everything virtually possible for him to do while pranking, he would usually take part in it himself. Once the population became aware of what he would do, people would always chase him but he would usually be able to outrun and out hide everyone.

Well everyone except Iruka, but Naruto really allowed Iruka to catch him. Mizuki of course knew this and at one point asked Naruto why he actually allowed himself to be caught by his other teacher.

Naruto's only reply was that it allowed Iruka to gain more control over the rest of the class due to the fact that it gave Iruka the reputation of the ultimate rule enforcer. Mizuki could only shake his head at this while chuckling.

As for Mizuki, he tended to keep giving Naruto subtle hints at pranking ideas much to everyone else's chagrin and soon he and Naruto were on just as good terms as Naruto and Iruka were. When it came time for the final exams, absolutely no one in the class had any doubts about how Naruto would do.

The Academy: Day of the Final Exams

All of the students were in the classroom going about their normal business, which in their case was mostly talking with their classmates. The main topic of the day was about the exams and how well they were going to do.

Some decided not to join in such as Neji, Lee, Ten Ten, who were busy figuring out who their sensei was. Lee had some idea and was hoping that he was right.

Another person who didn't join in on any conversations was Naruto who was thinking about who he would be teamed up with when the exam was over. He had a pretty good idea since there had been two people in the last couple of years who he was able to get along with marginally well. They were Matto and Heza.

Matto and Heza were a couple of students who like Naruto didn't like how people would form ideas about people without getting all the facts. Both also put their studies first which Naruto really appreciated since in his opinion, those who became ninjas just impress someone was not worth the time and effort it took to train them.

If there was one thing Naruto could not stand, it was fan girls/boys. Matto and Heza were also two of the few people who could work well with Naruto since they did their best to get to know the blond and the two would sometimes join him after the academy sessions were over to train which led them to become good friends. This showed when they took teamwork tests together ending with that group getting one of the highest scores, second only to Neji, Lee, and Ten Ten in that department.

Soon, both Mizuki and Iruka came in through the door and proceeded to try and get the class to quite down. After about fifteen seconds Iruka got fed up waiting and decided to use his favorite justu to get their attention: his patented bighead justu.

"Shut up and pay attention!"

Needless to say everyone did what they were told while Mizuki and Naruto shared a glance and both chuckled. Iruka then went on to explain how the final exam would be set up into three parts.

First would be written, the second would be physical which would include an obstacle course, a target test, and a straight out Taijustu spar. The third part would cover the Ninjustu that the students had learned while at the academy.

Most of the students groaned when they heard the first thing they would be doing was taking a written test. Needless to say, the one person who didn't complain was Naruto, who by this time had read practically every book he could get his hands on not only in the shinobi library but also the civilian one as well. So it was no surprise to anyone when less than ten minutes later Naruto put his pencil down and proceeded to take a quick nap while he waited for the rest of the class.

The second part of the test was also easy for Naruto. Thanks to his ability to make shadow clones, Naruto was able to put in a large number of hours each day to do physical training while a shadow clone attended the academy. This showed when Naruto got the best score for the obstacle course. The same was true for the target test. Naruto was able to get a near perfect score of ninety four on that test. The only one to beat him on that test was Ten Ten with a perfect score, but no one was surprised at that.

The only part of the test that gave him any real problems was the Taijustu test, where the students had to go against one of the teachers for a full five minutes.

Naruto got the "honor" of facing Mizuki, who having taught Naruto for the majority of the past couple of years, decided to make things interesting.

While with the rest of the class fought the teachers with them only fighting defensively, Mizuki took it up a notch and proceeded to go at Naruto for a good ten minutes. That fight had looked to the rest of the class like the fourth shinobi war was going on. Mizuki showed the class why he was high Chunnin level when Naruto had at one point somewhere around fifty clones going against Mizuki who proceeded to demolish the force and go straight after Naruto forcing him to dodge in ways most of the class thought impossible. That is not to say that Naruto did not get in some hits of his own. Due to his training with the fox and his unpredictable nature, Naruto was able to get in a good number of punches and kicks on Mizuki when he wasn't expecting him to do certain things.

Although what amazed everyone in the class except Iruka was the fact that throughout the entire fight, both Mizuki and Naruto were grinning at each other. Iruka finally had enough with the two and ended up knocking the two outside their heads to get them to stop.

"You were only supposed to go five minutes! And you Mizuki, were only supposed to fight defensively, not act like you were going to kill him!"

While Mizuki and Naruto were rubbing their heads, Mizuki tried to defend himself "Ah come on Iruka, if you had trained this kid like I had for two years, you wouldn't want to have a boring match with him either. Besides, Naruto didn't seem to mind."

Naruto decided to give his two cents as well. "Yeah, come on Iruka-sensei, it's not like we were going at each other with intent to kill."

This shocked the whole class, who to them, looked like that was exactly what those two were doing. Iruka could only look at the two before sighing, shake his head, and had the rest of the class take the test. He made sure that no one else fought Mizuki if he knew they were good at Taijustu much to Mizuki's disappointment.

After all of the spars took place, the teachers gave the students an hour for lunch before taking the final part of the exam. During that time, Matto and Heza got together with Naruto discussing how they did on the first two parts of the test and who they thought would be put into teams together. One thing all three agreed on was that Lee, Ten Ten, and Neji would most likely be put on a team together and that they had a very good chance of being on the same team as well. Soon it was time to go back in for the final test.

Back inside, Iruka explained that the third test would include trying to break out of a Genjustu, as well as displaying sufficient mastery of the three academy justus. To everyone's relief, Iruka explained that due to how not everyone was built for Genjustus, that although you did have to try, if you failed to try and break the Genjustu, it would not lower your overall scores.

Naruto, although was one of the worst at them when it came to creating and detecting them, felt that he had a fairly decent chance at breaking one since the teachers would most likely be using a low level one and also there was the fact that he would know when he was put in one. One by one, the students went into a separate room where the teachers would test them. While each student came out with a forehead protector, Naruto, who had become quite good at reading body language, noted some of them were more relieved than others. He just figured that they had hit a few snags with one or two of the justus but the teachers gave them points for trying and told them to keep working at them.

'That or they just didn't do good on that written test.' He thought. 'Though you can't really blame them on that count. Some of those questions were a bit hard.'

Naruto was pleased to note that Matto and Heza did not seem to have any problems when they came out. Both nodded to him when they came out before they sat down at their seats. Soon after it was his turn.

"Naruto Uzumaki, your turn." he heard from the other room. Getting up from his seat, he calmly walked into the room to see both teachers sitting behind a desk in a room with a potted plant in a corner. Iruka was the one to start things off.

"All right Naruto, like I said before, you need to break out of a Genjustu, and prove that you can do the three academy justus reasonably well. And before you ask, I know you have problems with regular clones but are good at shadow clones. This is just a formality so just create one shadow clone when you do that part. Now what do you want to do first?"

Naruto nodded at Iruka's explanation and decided to get the Genjustu test over since that was his worst ability. Just as Naruto thought, since he knew he would be put into a Genjustu, he was able to break out fairly easily.

As soon as it started, he noticed his surroundings blurred into his favorite ramen stand. To Naruto's horror however, the stand immediately burst into flame. It took Naruto a full minute to remember that it was only an illusion, and quickly ended the torture by disrupting his chakra flow. As soon as the illusion was gone, he shot Iruka a glare while Mizuki was just looking confused.

"Naruto, what did Iruka make you see? The way you were acting, I would think that you saw the utter banishment of ramen in the village."

Naruto immediately went pale but quickly regained his composure and started glaring at Iruka again. He then said "If you must know Iruka-sensei decided to show me Ichiraku's burning to the ground."

Mizuki just looked at Naruto for a second then turned to his friend and said "Now Iruka, I know that Naruto hasn't always the best thing for your health, but isn't that taking things a little too far?"

Iruka could only chuckle a little while sweat dropping a little at the combined stares of the other two occupants in the room. "I figured it would be a good motivator to break the justu." He said, looking at Naruto like he was a tiger about to pounce.

Mizuki smirked and said "Well congratulations. You definitely got him motivated. All right Naruto let's get back to the test, you can worry about how to get back at Iruka later."

Naruto got an evil gleam to his eye when Mizuki talked about getting even with Iruka which said teacher did not like one bit. 'I am so screwed. I don't even want to think about what that kid might do to me, and I bet one hundred bucks that Mizuki plans on helping him.'

Naruto nodded to Mizuki and said "Sure thing Mizuki-sensei." Naruto proceeded to henge into the hokage before replacing himself with the potted plant. After that it was simply just a formality when Naruto formed the familiar cross sign and said "Shadow Clone Justu" and had one appeared.

Mizuki and Iruka congratulated Naruto on a job well done and told him to get a headband, which he gladly did and replaced the goggles he was wearing with his. Walking out, he nodded to his two friends which they returned before he went back to his seat.

As soon as he got to his seat, Mizuki and Iruka came back in and Iruka started a speech about how they were now full fledged ninja now and what missions to expect. During this whole time, Iruka not once would look directly at Naruto, which he and Mizuki thought was hilarious with the rest of the class wondering just what exactly happened in there. Iruka finished up telling the class that the had the rest of the week off and to be back at 7am on Monday to meet their teachers.

After that everyone filed out of the class room, until only Naruto and the teachers were there. Mizuki and Iruka decided to treat Naruto to Ichiraku's to congratulate him on a job well done. And although Naruto would never admit it, he was glad for an excuse to go make sure that his favorite restaurant HADN'T burned to the ground.

While they were there, Iruka was talking about how Naruto's shadow clones would continue to give Naruto an advantage over his classmates, especially when it came to the dreaded D-rank missions. "You know Naruto, you're lucky that you have shadow clones. They will be a big help when you start doing those D-ranks."

"Really? Why's that Iruka-sensei? I thought you guys had said that they were just minor chores like painting a fence or walking dogs. Small things like that."

Mizuki saw where his friend was getting at and decided to answer for him. "That's true Naruto, but think about it. With your ability to make so many clones, it will take practically no time to paint a fence if you have fifty or more clones working at the same time."

Naruto instantly saw where Mizuki was coming from and nodded showing how he understood. The rest of the evening was spent making small talk until Iruka had to leave saying that he had to get all of the student reports ready for the Jounin team leaders and hokage to go over.

Mizuki decided with Iruka gone, now was the best time for him to give Naruto one final idea for a prank. Particularly a prank against one Chunnin with a scar over his nose. Leaning over, he began whispering to Naruto who once he started to hear, couldn't help a smirk start to form. By the end of it, he was trying, and failing, not to laugh. After a moment he fell off his stool on to the floor holding on to his stomach, he was laughing so hard. Ayame, the owners daughter could only wonder what one of Naruto's teachers had suggested he do and hope that the victim wouldn't be in to bad a shape afterwards.

It was roughly an hour later when Iruka finally got back to his apartment. Turning the key in the lock, Iruka was prepared for a prank such as a pressure triggered eraser catapult or swinging paint bomb on a rope. But sadly, this was not to be. When he opened his door, he immediately jumped back thinking one of those two things would happen.

When neither did, he started to think that Naruto might try something tomorrow and slowly went into his house. However as soon as he got halfway through his living room, he started to feel real nervous, and thinking it would probably be better to play it safe and spend the night at a hotel and get Anbu to help him in the morning, started to cautiously back out of the room constantly searching his surroundings when all hell broke lose.

All of a sudden, paint balls were launched from all angles, turning Iruka into a living tai dye artwork piece. Thinking that that was the extend of the prank and seriously needing a shower after the barrage, Iruka went to the shower, stripped his painted clothes and got in.

Unknown to him, Naruto had gone to his bathroom and with Mizuki's help had put a special dye into the pipes right before the shower head using a special justu normally used to phase through things such as walls. This dye was pretty much colorless until exposure to the air for at least a full minute after drying. Iruka mercifully oblivious to the continued madness start taking a shower washing away whatever paint his clothes hadn't stopped from getting on him and also the dirt and grime from the rest of the day.

Unfortunately, this allowed the dye to be coated all over him. When he got out of the shower, he started to towel off. While he was brushing his teeth, he was looking into his mirror and to his shock and horror, started turning completely blue from head to toe including his hair.

"**NARUTO!**"

Mizuki and Naruto heard this from the park bench they were sitting in, and immediately started laughing.

"Sounds like he just got out of the shower." Mizuki said while still laughing.

"Yeah just wait till he get's to his bedroom." Naruto replied.

Iruka, figuring that he would be better able to get Naruto tomorrow decided to go into his bedroom to try to get some rest. Sadly, that would not be for when he got there, he soon discovered hi whole bedroom had been painted hot pink. 'I am going to KILL that kid.' "**NARUTO! YOU ARE SO DEAD!"**

"Sounds like he just did." Mizuki said while grinning. "Better stay low for the rest of the week kid."

"Yeah., but it was definitely worth it." Said blond replied. And headed home waving to the one person who he knew would watch his back in the coming week.

The next day, Iruka was the laughing stock whenever he walked around due to being blue from head to toe. Everyone could only wonder what the teacher had did to the hidden leaf's number one prankster for him to do that. Mizuki was laughing his rear end off when he saw it and decided that Iruka had gotten his just desserts.

"Well Iruka, look at it this way. Now you know never to mess with ramen around Naruto."

Iruka could just glare at Mizuki before he walked away.


	5. Bell Test Part One Getting Started

Chapter 5

Bell Test Part One: Getting Started

Author's Notes: Hey guys. I've decided to try and go for a weekly update to this story. However, if I get a chance, ill update sooner. I have realized that although the way I came up with some of the scenes would have a flash back, I would be leaving to much to the imagination. Therefore, I am going to have at least one chapter talk about what goes on between team seven and the rest of the village for the first year. This chapter will show how Naruto interacts with everyone where he begins getting the respect he wants. Also, I realized that I never gave descriptions to my ocs. Both of them are brown haired with Matto having blue eyes a bit darker than Naruto's and Heza has brown eyes with a small tint of green towards the center. Both tend to wear the normal ninja outfit and both are average in height. The first with my ocs, the second with the canon team 7. Enough said, here's the next one. Also fair warning to you guys, Naruto turns into a real speed demon which is first shown in this chapter.

P.S. review if you think the prank I wrote about at the end of last chapter and what happens in this chapter is good enough for me to continue putting in, or if I should just give you the end result and you guys use your imaginations.

Hidden Leaf Village Academy: Day of Team Formation

Now, Naruto prides himself on not being stupid. Therefore, after he pulled off his "Smurf-ify" prank on Iruka, he decided to hang low for the next week. When he needed groceries, he would go out in a henge just in case he came across his now blue sensei. It was quite interesting hearing how people reacted to the prank. Some were wondering how he did it. Some of the rumors stated that he was able to get Iruka to fall in a tank of blue dye. Others were just down right nutty. Everyone agreed on one thing though. Whatever Iruka did to deserve this prank, they would do well not to do the same around the blond.

It had been one week since Naruto's claim of dominance over any and all school teachers. When he walked through the academy, all of the teachers except Mizuki were looking at him like he was a tiger getting ready to pounce on them all. Needless to say, all of the students found this hilarious and were congratulating Naruto. Some of the students who felt like making a show of things actually bowed to him. Now, most would think this would get to Naruto's head. And to a small extent, it did. But he just took it all in stride as he made it to his classroom with one thought. 'Definitely worth it.'

Reaching his classroom, he received similar treatment, and got a couple of high fives from some of the students on his way to his seat. However, some of the students didn't really care for the blonde's actions and resulting attention. The head of this group was one Neji Hyuga.

"Only a failure such as yourself would go to such lengths for attention." The Hyuga spat while standing over Naruto's desk.

The blond didn't let the Hyuga get to him, he was having to good a day right now. Of course, that didn't keep the kid from replying.

"Failure huh? Correct me if I'm wrong Neji, but doesn't the two facts that I am here today and that I now have a headband mean that I am not a failure? And just be glad I don't decided to do something similar to you and possibly your whole clan for that little comment of yours."

The class is suddenly quite. Many of the students were now wondering if Naruto would do what he just said he would.

"You wouldn't dare!" Neji said with killer intent starting to rise.

"Oh yeah? Watch me. Trust me, I could get into your compound and out before anyone knew what happened. And even if I do get caught, you know I can outrun any one in this village, be it sheer speed or stamina. Or have you forgotten that only Iruka-sensei can catch me, and even he knows that I let him."

The Hyuga was spared having to comment on that when Iruka came in had everyone sit down. He then looked at Naruto and the whole class started to wonder just what would happen to their favorite prankster.

"A little over the top don't you think Naruto?" Iruka asked looking the blond straight in the eye.

"I could say the same to you Iruka-sensei. Now you know never to use such a genjustu ever again." Said blond returned.

Iruka just sighed and decided to get the show on the road. Naruto allowed his mind to wonder as Iruka gave the speech he usually did to the graduating classes about being full blown shinobis and all that. He then listened with half a mind as his teacher got through teams one through six until he perked up when he heard his name being called.

"Team seven will consist of Naruto Uzumaki, Matto Hirzen, (made up on the fly just now and most likely never to be used again in this story.) and Heza Tano. (Again made up just now.) Your Jounin sensei will be Hatake Kakashi."

All three members were glad to be on the same team like they thought they would. However, Naruto was a little disappointed in who their sensei would be. Yes the man knew his father. Was actually his father's student at one time. But did he have to be late to every thing? They were also not surprised when the team nine members were called as follows:

"Team nine will consist of Neji Hyuga, Ten Ten, and Rock Lee. Your Jounin sensei will be Mait Gai."

"May god have mercy on your soul Hyuga." Naruto said in the tone of someone who is about to put someone to death. This brought about some chuckles from those who did not know who Gai was while those who did could only silently agree with him. They knew the Hyuga's sanity would be tested to the limit. Ten Ten's would be as well most likely.

The Hyuga just looked at Naruto and asked. "Why would I need mercy Uzumaki?"

Naruto just shudders and says "You'll find out eventually Neji. I'll visit you in the asylum every week. I promise."

Needless to say this unnerved the Hyuga prodigy, and more than just a little bit. However, no matter how hard he tried, he could not get the blond to explain.

After Iruka finished with the team placements, he wrapped things off by saying "You guys have an hour for break before your Jounin senseis arrive. Once again, it's been an honor having you as my students. Even if some of you did your best to give me premature gray hairs." A quick glance to Naruto, a few chuckles. "Good luck, and if you ever are need in advice, or just plain need someone to talk to, feel free to come find me. Good bye and good luck." He then walked out of the class room and the students started to follow.

Naruto, Matto, and Heza decided to grab a quick bite at Ichiraku's before going back into the class. While waiting, Naruto decided to work on some of his seals. He was doing this all the while they waited for the rest of their class to get back and after every one then left with their senseis, until it was just the three of them.

After about fifteen minutes, he pulled out a particular seal that both of his teammates recognized and were both probably the only ones besides the Hokage and maybe their now past teachers knew about. With a burst of controlled chakra and a poof of smoke, Naruto soon held a violin in his hands. (Yes I know. But with the ability to learn practically anything in a day, I'm making Naruto extremely musically talented in this one. Trust me, he has other instruments.) He started tuning his instrument and then begin to play a soft but uplifting tune. (Think the violin part from Left Hand Suzuki Method by the Gorillaz.) Both Matto and Heza just let themselves relax as they listened to Naruto play one of his favorite instruments. It was to this scene that Kakashi showed up to about an hour later. Standing outside the door to the classroom with the door still closed, Kakashi listened to the music and was surprised to find that whoever was playing seemed quite good at the instrument. He was even more surprised when it turned out to be Naruto playing though he did end up thinking that it shouldn't surprise him considering what he heard Naruto did with his ability to create armies of shadow clones. He still remembers the couple of days when he went to the Shinobi libraries to check a few things and found clones all over the place just reading.

'Wonder if he can use Genjustu with that?' The cyclops wondered. (No, he is not another Tayuya for those wondering. Remember, he still sucks at genjustu.) He then shakes himself back to the scene in front of him and says "Glad to see at least one of you has an interesting hobby. Meet me up on the roof." He then shun-shines (sp?) to the roof. Naruto quickly seals his violin and the three now official ninja proceed to go out the window and walk up the wall to the roof much to Kakashi's surprised pleasure and took seats facing him.

'Well that's one thing I won't have to teach them. I can understand sensei's son having learned how to do that since he used those clones to learn so much. I guess he taught the other two at some point. Wonder what else he taught them? Oh well, I'll find out soon enough I'm sure.' "Glad to see you guys know a few tricks outside of what's taught in the academy. It shows that you actually wish to put effort into your shinobi careers."

"That and it helps Naruto to do pranks that much easier." Matto said and the three youths start chuckling which Kakashi soon joins in.

"Fair enough." He replied and then continued. "Now then, why don't we go ahead and get to know each other. Say your name, what you like, what you dislike, hobbies, and dreams."

Heza spoke first. "Sensei, why don't you go first? After all, we pretty much know each other, but we don't know much about you." (What? Did you think she was like Sakura? Sorry folks, this kunoichi actually is more than just book smart.)

"Oh…. Me? My name is Hatake Kakashi. I'm the kind of person who doesn't fell like talking about his likes and dislikes! My dreams for the future are none of your business… but anyway, I have lots of hobbies." (If you guessed that was the manga version, you get a cookie. J)

'All we really got was his name, which we knew anyway.' The three thought together.

"Gee, sensei, you really stick to the shinobi rules on information don't you?" Naruto asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh, and what would they be Naruto?" Kakashi asked with a raised eyebrow as well.

"One: don't give out more than absolutely necessary. Two: use any information to your advantage and use said info to disillusion your opponent. Even true information can be used to fool others."

"Hm, well yes I guess you could say that. Now then, since you seem to like to talk so much, why don't you start off blondie?"

The same eyebrow rose again at the nickname but Naruto let it drop and started. "All right, as all of you know, my name is Naruto Uzumaki. As for my likes, I like to train, sometimes with my friends, pull pranks, and just generally have fun with my friends. Oh, and the occasional meal of ramen. (The other two Genin snort at this.) My dislikes include those who like to judge without getting their facts straight, and bullies. As for hobbies, I like to learn how to play new instruments and am a semi amateur gardener. (Kakashi's eyebrow once again found itself raised at the words semi amateur.) I also like to read up on any new justus or just about anything else I find at the library or bookstores. For dreams, well, (looks at the hokage monument specifically at the fourth) I want to make my parents proud of me and become hokage someday."

'Definitely his father's son.' Kakashi thought while listening. "All right, you next" he said while pointing at Matto.

"Ok. my Name is Matto Hirzen, and my likes are hanging out with my friends, training with Naruto and Heza, and occasionally giving Naruto a hand with his pranks. ('oh boy' Kakashi thought) I generally don't have many dislikes besides hating those who judge others and bullies. As for hobbies, I like to learn about seals. Granted, I'm nowhere Naruto's level, but I think I'm pretty good considering. As for dreams? Well lets just say that I want to be the best I can be"

Kakashi nods to himself and points to Heza. "You next"

Heza nods and starts. "All right. My Name is Heza Tano. I like training with my friends and just enjoying life in general. I dislike bullies and those who judge and think they are better than everyone just because of who their parents are. Even worse are girls who simply became ninja to impress someone. (Both Matto and Naruto nod at this which Kakashi caught and approved of.) As for hobbies, I like to read and sometimes help Naruto with his little "adventures". (Another eyebrow raised. (Seriously Kakashi should just leave it up there.)) As for dreams, I want to be the best I can be in this world."

Kakashi nods to himself again and thinks to himself 'Well, I've got sensei's son, and his two friends, all three of who seem to have their heads on straight and are truly willing to give it their all. I'm glad Heza isn't a fan-girl. That would be a pain to deal with.' "All right. From what I just heard, all three of you got your minds set in the right direction. Meet up at training ground seven at seven tomorrow morning for your Genin exam." 'Three, Two, One.'

"Sensei, I understand that this is the true exam, but do we need to do anything special for it?" Heza asked.

Kakashi was pleasantly surprised that these three knew about the purpose of this exam and simply told the three to just show up in full gear and to not have breakfast unless they wanted to lose it. He then shun-shined away. Naruto and the others decided to head to the Akimichi barbeque restaurant to discuss possible battle formations for the exam. After an hour, they agreed that while the strategies they came up with were good ones, they would have to wait till tomorrow to know which, if any, they would have to use. They then split off to get ready in their own ways. Naruto decided it would be a good idea to have a talk with his new sensei and proceeded to look for him. He had a fairly good idea where to go as well.

Memorial Stone

Kakashi was musing at the memorial stone thinking about his new team. Especially about one sapphire eyed, whiskered blond. 'I won't let you down sensei. I will make sure Naruto's dream will become a reality.'

Suddenly he was interrupted from his thoughts when he heard someone say behind him. "I knew I would find you here sensei."

Kakashi turns around to find said blond standing behind him with a small smile on his face. Kakashi gave his patented eye smile and said "Naruto. What a pleasant surprise. Was there something you want to talk about?"

Naruto stepped up to the monument and bowed his head for a quick moment in respect to the names carved on the stone. He then turned to Kakashi and said. "Well yeah. You see we never really got the chance to talk before, and I was wondering if you didn't mind telling me anything about my parents."

Kakashi just eye smiled again and said "Sure thing Naruto. Why don't we go to my apartment."

Naruto nods and they take off.

Kakashi's Apartment

When Naruto and Kakashi got to Kakashi's apartment. They started talking about Naruto's parents. They talked for a good while, discussing the kind of people they were, how Naruto's mother could be just as big a prankster as he was and how his father always gave his all to do his best and help others. They also talked about the missions Kakashi went on with his father including that time when they had to destroy a bridge behind enemy lines. It was nine pm when Kakashi decided that Naruto should start heading home.

"Well Naruto, It's getting late so I think you should head to your apartment and get some sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a big day."

"Alright. Thanks for that Kakashi. It was fun. Good Night."

"Any time Naruto. Good Night."

With that, Naruto left back to his apartment, glad that he had gone looking for his teacher that day.

Next Day Training Ground 7

The next day showed Matto and Heza walking towards training ground seven where they could hear someone playing a native American style flute. (Think of a recorder only longer, made out of wood, and no bell at the end.) When they got there, they saw Naruto sitting in front of the middle of three posts that were sitting in the field. He was sitting Indian style playing a melody that made them automatically think of a plateau over a desert with eagles flying over head and other wild life around. (They still couldn't figure out how he could make them picture things like that since he couldn't cast a decent genjustu to save his live.) They went over to him and just listened to him while he played. Although the two didn't realize it, Naruto was actually playing one of his instruments to keep the two from constantly checking the time. He did this because he understood where Kakashi was all the time and why he was constantly late. He also planned on doing his best to fix that problem in the future. But for now, he just played to keep the other two busy.

After about an hour, Kakashi finally showed up in a poof of smoke. He quickly noticed Naruto playing and started to listen as well. Or at least tried to, because as soon as Naruto noticed his presence, he looked up and stopped playing mid note. Immediately, Matto and Heza snapped out of their semi-trances and Heza immediately asked why he stopped playing. Naruto just pointed over her shoulder at Kakashi.

Heza and Matto turned around to see their sensei behind them and Matto decided to greet him in a rather unusual way. "Did you have to show up just now? Naruto was playing a real good song just now."

Naruto chuckled and quickly apologized about ending his song so abruptly and then sealed his flute back into its sealing scroll. He then looked at Kakashi and asked "So what's the test going to be Kakashi-sensei?"

"Well Naruto, like I said yesterday, this test is to see if you actually have what it takes to be a ninja. I have two bells here and all you three each have to do is get one before noon."

"But sensei, there are only two bells." Heza stated trying to figure at what angle Kakashi was coming from. The boys were doing the same.

"That's right. Whoever doesn't get a bell gets sent back to the academy. Also, whoever doesn't get a bell will be tied to one of those three posts behind you and watch as I eat my lunch."

The three Genin hopefuls looked at each other and they could tell something was wrong, but with a glance at each other agreed to talk after the test started and just nodded to Kakashi showing that they understood.

Kakashi noticed the glance they gave to each other and thought 'looks like they already suspect something. Good they'll need that ability to look underneath the underneath as they grow up.' "All right if you three are ready then we will get started."

The three hopefuls nodded and Kakashi set a timer on the top of the middle stump and set it to ring at noon. After that he said "Ready, Begin!" and instantly Shun-shined out of the three's sight.

As soon as he left, the three huddled up and begin talking.

"There is no way that getting the bells is the true test. Whoever heard of a genin team with only two genin?" Heza asked right off the bat.

"Agreed, there has got to be another side to this thing." Matto agreed thinking that he might have an idea about what was going on.

But before he could say anything, Naruto decided to put his two cents in. "I think it's the old divide and conquer test. See if we are able to get over a problem where we could be working at odds with each other. I bet fifty bucks that this is a test to see if we work together instead of going on our own."

Heza snorted and said" No thanks Naruto, your just to lucky for me to take that bet." All three chuckled and Heza continued "Although you're most likely right about the divide and conquer theory."

"So now we know what the real test is how do we get those bells?" Matto asked and then turned to Naruto "Any ideas Naruto?" He asked.

Naruto just thought for a minute before he got a wicked gleam in his eyes. A moment later, he got an even more wicked smile, one that made the two back away a little bit.

"Oh man, I've seen that look before." Matto said.

"Yeah. So have I. Whatever he's thinking about, Kakashi-sensei is in serious trouble."

"Well not Kakashi-sensei himself, more like that book of his." Naruto said with that smile still on his face.

"Are you crazy?" Matto asked "From what I've heard, that thing is sacred to him."

"Exactly, he will do anything for it. So we use that to our advantage." Naruto said and proceeded to explain his plan to the two.

"Matto, Heza, don't get any wrong ideas, but I don't need you to do anything major except set up some traps and then stand in the field." The two were about to protest when Naruto continued. "This plan requires a lot of speed to succeed and lets face it, I'm the fastest in our class."

The other two didn't like that Naruto would be doing all the work by himself but agreed anyway seeing as how he made a very good point. "Okay, Heza and I will stay here but what are you going to be doing?" Matto asked wondering how Naruto would get not only the bells from Kakashi but also his most sacred treasure.

"Glad you asked that. Here's what we do. You two are going take all the paper bombs we have and set up a minefield corridor (A minefield corridor is exactly what it sounds like. A corridor with mines on either side.) in the woods to my left. Make it real thick because Kakashi and I are going to be going real fast. When I get Kakashi to chase after me, I'll set them off to distract him. Once he's dazed, I'll send him into the field where you guys are. And once he's there, he will give you two the bells. That is if he wants his precious book back unharmed."

"But how are you going to get his book and for him to chase you down the corridor?" Heza asked confused.

"Leave that to me." Naruto said. "Let's get everything set up." The three then got busy setting up.


	6. Bell Test Part Two Kakashi's Horror

Bell Test Part 2: Kakashi's Horror..

Author's Notes: Hey guys. This chapter is going to be a little bit short. However, you are about to see Kakashi go from extreme fear to extreme hate and back again so just sit back and enjoy the show.

Training Ground 7: Bell Test, One Hour In

Preparations were finished quickly and Matto and Heza headed back into the field to wait for Naruto to do whatever it was he had planned to get Kakashi to chase him through the corridor. They were still wondering how he planned on getting that detestable orange book so that Kakashi would give up the bells, and were hoping that Naruto knew what he was getting himself into.

In the meantime, Naruto had been busy looking for Kakashi for the next thirty minutes. While it is true he could locate Kakashi by firing a chakra pulse or two, that would have alerted Kakashi to the fact that Naruto could do it as well as give Kakashi an idea of where he was. After all, you don't become Chunnin or Jounin without learning things such as picking up chakra spikes.

So Naruto was tracking Kakashi down with a more conventional means. Thanks to all of the training Naruto did with the Kitsune in their summoning realm, Naruto's senses were extremely more sensitive than most other people. He was currently using his Inuzka like nose to track down his soon to be vic- er teacher.

'Good thing I spent so much time at his apartment last night. I've got his scent down good now.' Naruto was doing well tracking Kakashi but the one eyed Jounin seemed to know he was being followed and kept moving around.

Naruto was finally able to mask his chakra enough and got into position. Fortunately or unfortunately in Kakashi's case, Kakashi was just a few football fields from the corridor that they set up. Naruto immediately realized that Kakashi probably knew about the corridor but figured that the cyclops was humoring them so he readied himself to run like a bat straight out of hell.

Meanwhile, Kakashi was nervously checking his surroundings without turning his head. For the past forty five minutes, he could smell Naruto tracking him. The boy was good, but he couldn't entirely get rid of his scent.

But while Kakashi was impressed, he was a bit worried that it was just Naruto. The three hopefuls seemed to know more about what the test was really about than all the other teams he had tested before but only Naruto seemed to be actively searching for him.

This meant a couple of things to him. Either the other two were expecting Naruto to do all the work or they had a plan that Naruto would drag him into. The fact that he had seen them set up the mine corridor led him to believe the second, but either one worried him.

The first thought worried him because it would mean they weren't as willing to look out for each other as he thought. The second concerned him even more. There was quite a bit of explosive just ahead of his position. He had reluctantly headed to his position when he realized that he might as well get this over with and just hoped Naruto wouldn't get too hurt. This of course was about to change soon but he did not know that.

Back with Naruto, he had quickly made sure that Kakashi's pouch was on the same side as the bells and that he was sure that the bulge in it was his target. (I'm making the bells on Kakashi's left side not right like cannon. You will see why in just a second.) Taking a deep yet quite breath, Naruto took one last moment to review his plan mentally. As soon as he had gone over everything in his mind, he blurred straight toward the cyclops' lower left back.

Back with Kakashi, he suddenly felt something coming towards him at an extremely fast pace. He quickly jumped out of the way to his right and saw Naruto appear on a branch in front of him kneeling down on one knee, with his arms in front and head bowed. 'I barely saw him move!' Kakashi thought with his visible eye wide open. 'He almost got a bell. No wonder he and the other two set up that corridor. He could easily go straight through and trigger it half way through to lose me. It almost worked too.' "Not bad Naruto, but I'm afraid you messed up your chance to get the bell that you were after."

Naruto still turned away from the silver haired Jounin just smirked. "Actually, I got just what I was after."

"Oh?" Kakashi asked, eyebrow raised. His face then went to a look of shock when Naruto stood up, turned around and showed what was in his right hand.: one orange book. That look of shock quickly turned to horror when Kakashi saw gleam come to the blonde's eye. "What are you going to do?" He asked in a fearful voice.

Naruto just smirked and promptly incinerated the offending book with a fireball justu. Kakashi just stared in horror for a full two seconds until his killing intent spiked so high, it even made Kyubi nervous.

"NARUTO! I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" Kakashi screamed and chased after Naruto who as soon as he felt the killing intent, had turned around and high tailed it out of there.

Kakashi blindly chased Naruto not realizing that they were heading straight towards the gauntlet. Naruto headed right through and when Kakashi reached an area where the bombs were set to a level that would stun instead of kill triggered every single bomb in the corridor.

Matto and Heza who were in the field suddenly saw a huge explosion which rocked the ground they were standing on which caused them to fall on their rear ends.

A few seconds later, Kakashi was still in a daze when Naruto appeared to the right side of the branch Kakashi was on. He was already in the air over the branch by a few feet above and just a little bit behind so that when he landed, it would be on the branch below. As soon as he appeared, he kicked with his right foot connecting with Kakashi's head sending him straight into the field where Matto and Heza were once again standing.

While Kakashi was standing up wonder just where that train that hit him had come from, Naruto appeared on a branch of a tree on the edge of the field.

"I suggest you give the bells to my teammates Kakashi-sensei."

Kakashi turned around and glared at Naruto and said "And why would I do that. After all there is no need to pass a two man squad."

"Two man squad?" Heza asked, really nervous at the way their sensei was looking at her friend. Matto just gulped and looked on.

Kakashi answered with venom in his voice "Naruto is going to be in the hospital for a very long time for what he did. Maybe even in the morgue!" The other two took a quick step back while Naruto just looked at him with an eyebrow cocked. (Talk about showing bravery under fire!)

He then raised an orange book and asked "Why? Because I burnt a shadow clone of this?"

Kakashi's jaw dropped to the floor when he heard that and then wanted to slap his forehead when heard that it was a fake Naruto had burned. He instantly became afraid again however when Naruto flicked his closed right fist open and upon opening it caused a ball of flame to appear in it. (Remember, Naruto has had a long time to use shadow clones so he has basic control over all of the elements. He is obviously best at wind but since wind powers fire, he is almost just as good with it.)

Naruto gave Kakashi a chance right then and there. "Give Matto and Heza the bells or I burn it for real."

Kakashi quickly unhooked the bells from his belt and tossed them to the other two hopefuls and then said in a voice that made the others sweat drop. "There. They have the bells. Now please give me back my precious!"

Naruto once again raised his right eye brow and tossed the book to the cyclops who immediately treated the thing like some kind of child. "There there, I won't let anything bad happen to you. I promise!"

Matto and Heza looked shocked as Naruto just shook his head and dropped down to the ground, and then walked over to the others.

Matto was the first of the two to get back to his senses and asked. "So I guess we passed right?"

Kakashi too got back to business and said "Yes you all pass but." At this he turned to Naruto "If you even think about doing that again I will send you to the hospital for a year, even with that accelerated healing ability of yours. " Naruto just nodded and Kakashi continued. "That being said, you guys came up with a good plan. Naruto got me in such a furious state I completely forgot about the corridor when I chased him. He then got me into the middle where the lesser bombs were and activated all of them. The concussive force was enough to daze me so that I would be open to be forced into the field where you two were. You then forced me to give the bells to your teammates. This showed you are willing to work together and that Naruto is willing to give up his own needs for others and I'm sure you two are the same." The other two nodded at this. "Good job. Meet back here tomorrow at seven for training and then we'll do missions in the afternoon. You have the rest of the day off you two. Naruto, I would like to talk to you."

Naruto nodded and traded high fives with his now official teammates as they headed off and came to facing his new sensei.

Kakashi just looked at Naruto for a moment while thinking to himself 'He definitely has more than just his father's looks. He's also got his amazing speed as well.' "Naruto I want to talk to you about the training that we are going to be doing starting tomorrow." He waited for him to nod before continuing. "I take it that you had taught the other two the tree climbing exercise?" Another nod. "Well I would like you to begin teaching the other two any other chakra control exercises that you may know of starting tomorrow. That and working on their Taijustu and any Ninjustu you can would be a big help since their likely to do as you say without any problems."

Naruto nodded and said "Sure, I can do that. It would give them a chance to actually learn after all. Just be here by noon so we can get some missions in."

Kakashi just eye smiled and nodded. The two then went their separate ways.

Author's Notes: Well, a little short, but I want to do the d ranks next chapter since they will be quite lengthy. (Remember, Naruto has his personal army of shadow clones so he can do quite a few at a time.) We will also begin to see how Naruto interacts with others in the next one. I will try to have it up soon.


	7. Getting Started

Getting Started

Author's Notes: Just a head's up, but it may be another chapter or two before I cover the canon team 7. The reason is I am trying to decide whether to cover the "disaster mission" as I have come to call it where my ocs get really wrecked, or if I should do it as flashbacks with just a quick overview and the actual scene it happened in. If you have a preference please say so because after this then Matto and Heza well only make one or two appearances because right after team 7 becomes canon it is going to get real fast paced.. With that said let's get started.

Mizuki had not been kidding when he had said that Naruto's shadow clones would come in handy. Within a week, team 7 had already done twice the required amount of D-rank missions needed to take part in the next Chunnin exams. It got to the point where Naruto would take at least ten missions at once. It was said that the village never looked so good since all of the fences were painted quickly and the monument took no time to clean up at all.

The only real problems came when it was time for every Genin's worst nightmare: Tora Hunting. This wasn't a problem for long however when Naruto got the bright idea of bringing catnip one time. Everyone who had ever had to do this mission found themselves' palming their foreheads and asking themselves why they didn't think of that. After a while Naruto seemed to be able to get on the "cat from hell's" good side to the point where the nip was no longer needed to everyone's relief.

But it wasn't just fences and cats the three were given task for. Many of the store owners who would get large shipments soon figured out that they only had to pay for one team when in truth they could have close to five at the time. This was good for Naruto because while he was working at all of these stores he was gradually making it so that everyone was a whole lot nicer to him. In fact, some of the owners would actually give him discounts now.

Besides doing D-ranks, Team 7 trained their butts off. While Kakashi was still usually late for everything, Naruto was making progress with him. However, when he actually got to the team meetings, he was one hell of a taskmaster. Each day the three would do laps around the village on and other extreme workouts such as running up and down the hokage's monument. And this was just their warm ups. After that, they would have quick "spars." (More like all out warfare.)

After that, they would then work on chakra control and learning justus. It was during these times that Naruto learned that he could cover his hands or any other part of his body with wind chakra and slice through practically any thing. (Think Kabuto's signature fighting technique only with wind instead of regular chakra.)

Naruto also took things up a notch with his weight training. One year after Naruto began using shadow clones, he decided to start wearing weights to get his speed up like his father's. After joining team 7, Naruto took it up a notch. Instead of regular weights, he started wearing chakra weights. These weights took the percentage of chakra and for each percent of your overall chakra put into a seal would make you feel ten pounds heavier. By the end of the month, Naruto was at thirty percent. This of course made him practically untouchable during spars with his teammates whenever he took them off.

Unfortunately for Naruto and Kakashi, two months into training, Gai witnessed one of these spars and dragged the two into a two on two spar with him and Gai. Now this one time would not have been so bad. However, Naruto actually made the mistake of wiping the floor with Lee in less than five moves. (I'll let you use your imaginations on that but just know that Naruto used his "chakra hands" to make it so that Lee couldn't move.) Unfortunately, Kakashi also won against Gai although not as fast. However the damage was done and Gai insisted on more matches, leading to the "eternal rivalry of youth between the ages." (I know scary right?)

Truth be told, Naruto did not really mind since Lee was one of the few people his age who could actually give him a good workout when sparring. Now if he could only get those two away from that flames of youth crap.

And of course there was training with his adopted father Kyubi. After Naruto graduated, the fox decided it was a good time to accelerate Naruto's training by having him work on sword fighting.

It wasn't just training and missions everyday for Naruto though. Sometimes when he would have the day off he would wait at the academy for Iruka and Mizuki to finish their lectures and he would chat with them. It was on one of these days that he got to meet Neji's cousin who would soon later become one of his most precious people.

Hidden Leaf Village Ninja Academy: Four Months After Graduation: Teachers' Lounge

Naruto was walking through the hallways towards the Teachers' Lounge. He was going to tell his two favorite teachers about the C-rank that he and his team just finished. (This one is his third but the first outside of the land of fire.) He turned into the room to find the two friends just about done grading papers.

"Hey guys." Naruto said coming in and taking a seat at the table his two senseis were seated at.

"Hey Naruto, how you been doing lately?" Mizuki asked looking up from his last paper.

"Been good. Just got back from a C-rank outside of the land of fire." Naruto said.

"Really? That's your first mission outside of the country isn't it? How did it go?" Iruka asked very interested in how his favorite student from last year's class did.

"Yeah it was. Any way, I did fine Iruka-sensei. It was a simple escort mission of a merchant's caravan to a town just west of the border. Since it was a large caravan, we had to work with another team. Would have had to have another team with us as well, but apparently someone in the caravan had heard about my shadow clone ability and asked that I quote un quote put them to good use."

Mizuki and Iruka just chuckled at that and the three then spent the next few minutes talking before the two teachers left towards their apartments. Naruto was leaving as well when he noticed a girl on the swing in front of the Academy. Now normally he wouldn't think anything of it. However, he saw a loneliness in the girl's eyes that he quickly recognized.

'She looks just like I did all those years ago.' He thought to himself remembering the times before he met up with Mizuki and Iruka. Deciding to talk to her he headed over to the girl who he recognized as a Hyuga by her eyes. 'Wonder why a Hyuga would be lonely?' He asked himself.

"Hey, mind if I sit down here?" He asked once he got next to the girl.

The girl had been so busy just looking down and being lost in her thoughts that she was surprised to hear someone talking to her. Jumping a little, she looked to her side seeing a blonde with whisker like marks on his face along with the bluest eyes she had ever set sight on. Drawn out of her thoughts, she just slowly shook her head and turned back around while putting an arm over the swings rope support. (Think of Naruto when he failed the Exam that final time and is watching the others.)

Naruto watched her for a few seconds before sitting down cross legged. After about five minutes of silence between the two, Naruto decided to see if he could get the Hyuga to open up a little bit. Taking a deep breath, he then said to her "My Name's Naruto Uzumaki. What's yours?"

The girl just looked at him for a moment before replying "Hinata Hyuga" and just turned back again. Naruto just sighed realizing that he wasn't getting anywhere this way and decided to take a more direct approach.

"So who are you waiting for?" He asked while looking at her.

"No one really." She said not even turning this time.

"I find that odd. Normally parents come to pick up their children." Naruto said trying to get the girl to say more than three words to him.

"Well usually father sends someone for me but lately no one has come." She said.

'Finally got a full sentence from her.' Naruto thought then frowned. "Why's that?" He asked.

The Hyuga just sighed and then said "He probably doesn't think I'm worth it. No matter what I do it just doesn't seem to be good enough. He seems to think my younger sister can do everything better than I can."

"I'm sure he doesn't think that." Naruto said trying to cheer her up.

"But he does. Ever since my mother died giving birth to my sister he's been nothing but cold and heartless to me and my sister. But more so to me." She said sadly.

Before Naruto could say anything though she continued. "It's not just him either, the whole council thinks I'm good for nothing and weak. And why shouldn't they? I can't seem to do anything right and it's never good enough for my father."

Naruto just got pissed at this. For years people had called him a failure telling him that he couldn't do anything right. Getting up, he went in front of the girl and placed a finger under her chin tilting her head up making her look him in the eye.

"Listen Hinata and listen well. You cannot let what those people tell you get to you."

"But-" the girl started.

"No buts. The only one who can call your self a failure is yourself and from what I can see you are not one. Just someone who is lacking confidence. Believe me, I know what it is like to be called a failure. Hell, I've been called even worse. But I didn't let those idiots get to me, and I grew stronger because of it. Yeah it took a lot of work but I kept at it. All you have to do is just keep going." All this time he looked into her eyes not blinking once.

Hinata just nodded to him but was thrilled on the inside with what she was hearing. Here was someone who didn't think that she was a failure. Someone who had been through the same thing she was right now and had gotten through it. She was even more thrilled when she heard what he said next.

"If these fools think your weak, then all you have to do is show them their wrong. All you have to do is get stronger. I know you can, and if you want, I can help."

Hinata couldn't believe her ears. Here was the same person who had been through the same things she had and was wiling to help her. Looking into his eyes she asked "You really mean it? You'll really help me?"

Naruto just nodded and said "Yes. If you want me to." Hinata nodded and he continued. "Me and my team just finished a C-rank today so I don't think we will be doing any missions again tomorrow. Let me ask my sensei and if we aren't then we'll get started then. I'll be waiting here if I don't have any."

Hinata just nodded and Naruto said good bye before leaving to find Kakashi. Not surprisingly he found his perverted teacher buying the newest volume of that hated orange book at the bookstore.

'Figures.' He thought before walking up to him. "Hey Kakashi-sensei, can I talk to you?"

Kakashi just turned around and noticing the look on his Sensei's son's face nodded. The two left the bookstore and Kakashi asked what Naruto wanted to talk about. Naruto explained what happened by the swing and asked if they had any missions planned for tomorrow so that he could see if he could train the Hyuga. Kakashi listened and then told him that he was just planning on having them do a few D-ranks and training and that he had no problems with Naruto teaching her. He actually said to use training ground 7 and that if he need any help to just ask. Naruto thanked him and took off towards his house wondering what he should help his new friend with first.

Next Day: Tree Swing outside of Academy

Hinata came out of the academy and immediately perked up when she saw Naruto leaning against the tree. When Naruto caught sight of her he waved to her and headed towards her. When he got close he jerked his head towards the exit and when Hinata nodded to him the two left together.

"We're going to be going to my team's training grounds. We'll start once we're there." Naruto said taking a quick glance to his newest "student."

"Ok." Hinata said noticing the glance and smiling at her new friend. Naruto just grinned and led the way.

Meanwhile: Training Ground 7

The rest of Team 7 was waiting for Naruto to show up with his new friend that he was going to be helping. When Kakashi and Naruto had explained to the other two what Naruto was going to start doing today the other two decided to see if they could help out at all. In the meantime, Matto and Heza were currently in a two on one battle royal with their silver haired sensei.

"So what do you think Naruto will work on first today sensei? Chakra control or Taijustu?" Matto asked throwing a right hook at Kakashi and following up with a round house kick pivoting when Kakashi dodged and turning it into a spin kick that forced Kakashi to go towards the only female on the team.

"I would personally start with a little bit of Taijustu, but I think he wants to try chakra control first." Kakashi replied as he started blocking punches and kicks come from the kunoichi and jumping away from a quick punch to get some distance said "Good one Heza, by the way what do you think they'll work on first?"

Heza just shrugged and closed the distance again and with Matto who came to her side started going after their teacher again. "Can't say really. I mean yeah he said that he would work on those two first but does it really matter in what order? I mean sure the Hyugas use extreme chakra control in their gentle fist style, and yes Naruto has studied it somewhat. But does it really matter this early in the game?"

"Good point." Matto said dodging under a roundhouse kick and tried to get into his sensei's bubble with a kick of his own but only ended in making the cyclops take a step to keep the distance between the two. This was the scene that Naruto and Hinata walked onto.

"Wow, that's amazing." Hinata breathed while Naruto just chuckled. Heza heard him and without taking her eyes off of Kakashi or even slowing down called out "Hey Naruto! You just going to stand there or you going to help?"

Kakashi's eye suddenly widened when Naruto did his signature entry into any battle where the opponent is usually a lot slower than he is. (Think what Naruto did in the bell test with that kick to the side of the opponents face when Naruto is in the air.) Kakashi was able to reduce the impact by rolling and then had to immediately go on the defense from all the kicks and punches that was coming from Naruto.

Meanwhile Matto and Heza got into position on either side of him and the three proceeded to box their teacher in. After about two minutes of a rather intense Taijustu match between the four, Kakashi called it quits so that Naruto could start teaching Hinata. Said Hyuga just there with a look of shocked amazement on her face. When the four started walking towards her, the four saw this and Heza chuckled.

"I think we broke her." She said earning chuckles from the three guys in the area.

Hinata snapped out of her semi trance and looking at Naruto said "That was amazing! Can you really help me be able to fight like that?"

Naruto nodded and said "Not all at once obviously. It'll take some time, but I'm sure that you can reach that point. Although you will have to do the most of it. I'm really just here to help you get started. All I can do is show you what to do. You are the only one who can decide how high you climb."

Hinata just nodded and then asked what she had to do. Naruto decided to see how she did in Taijustu first and spent the next hour and a half working on that showing where she could improve. After that, he worked on chakra control, showing her all kinds of exercises including leaf balancing and tree climbing.

It went on like this for another four months. Naruto was very impressed with his friend's progress and even taught her a few justus he knew. Eventually Hinata got to the point where she could hold her own when sparring with Matto and Heza and Naruto decided that there wasn't really anything else he could teach her. She would sometimes come find him if she was having troubles with something, but usually it was just to hang out with him, and the two became quite close. Everyone in her class had noticed how much she had improved, especially her confidence in herself. One day, Iruka decided to see what brought about the change.

Ninja Academy: Two Months Before Graduation

Iruka was amazed with Hinata. She went to being one of the worst students in regards to Taijustu and other physical attributes required to ninja with an extreme case of self doubt to one of the most confident and strongest in her class. That plus she was a lot more open now.

One day during a Taijustu test where Mizuki was once again helping him test the students, he watched Hinata and her opponent face off against each other. The opponent was a poor sap of a kunoichi, a fan girl.

Now the one thing that separated this poor excuse of a ninja from the other fan girls was the fact that she was particularly mean and liked to make others feel like dirt. She immediately started to trash talk Hinata thinking that Hinata's new found confidence was just a mask. When she couldn't get Hinata to bite, she became very upset and rushed straight in. Big no no on her part. Just as she got in close, Hinata stepped to the side and got to one knee while turning to face her opponent. With her left arm she swept the girls legs out from under her and with her right slammed her arm into the girls stomach and sent her flying into the mat they were on top of. The girls breath instantly left her and Mizuki called the match.

Hinata got a few cheers from her classmates while the rest of the "snobs" realized one very important thing: the new Hinata was not a mask and was here to stay. Iruka then congratulated Hinata and decided to ask the one thing that was on everyone's mind.

"Very well done Hinata. You've definitely improved. What have you been doing differently?"

Hinata noticed everyone looking at her and got a small blush. "Well you see Iruka-sensei. I've been getting some help outside of class."

Iruka raised an eyebrow at the blush and answer and decided to get some more info. "Can you be a little more specific Hinata? What kind of help did you get? Was it with your father?"

Hinata shook her head and said "No sensei. I've been training with Naruto and the rest of team 7."

Iruka and Mizuki just burst into laughter when they heard this causing everyone to look at them like they were nuts.

Once Mizuki got his laughter under control he said "Well that certainly explains it! That kid can be one harsh task master. Believe me, I've seen what he does for training now a days."

Hinata just nodded to this and smiled.

Iruka who had also gotten his little laughing fit under control decided to ask another question. "So Hinata, how long have you been training with them."

"Well, Iruka-sensei, I started training with them about four months ago." Hinata said and everyone was impressed with how fast Hinata had grown. One particular Uchiha was wondering if he could train with this team since they obviously knew what they were doing.


	8. Destruction of Team 7

Destruction of Team 7

Author's Notes: Hey guys, a few things I want to tell you guys before I get started. For those have me on author's alert, you know that I have posted another "story" which list potential story ideas. I would like to get your input on that so please check it out and review. I will probably add some more if I come up with any other ideas. Also know that if I do start one or both of those stories that it will not affect the update time periods on this story. Truth be told, I usually update right after I write the chapter and that is usually on the weekends. If I do take up these two stories, it will just mean that I will also be writing on another day as well. That being said please once again just check out the other "story." I won't start unless someone wants me too. One final thing. This story well be a little different than normal since I will start from the middle of this chapter and hop back to the beginning right after. (Think the first episode from Shipuuden.) One last thing, this chapter is going to be a woozy but don't expect many more anywhere close to this long for a while. That being said, let's get started.

Village Hidden in the Leaves: Hospital: Two weeks before Academy Graduation exams

Naruto was currently looking out a window in a hallway on the second floor of the hospital. He had an arm on the window with his forehead resting on his arm. His eyes were downcast and roaring around in emotions like a giant storm off of one the famous Great Lakes rumored to be on another continent far from his home. (Just to clear things up, while the elemental countries does look like China, I'm making it another continent just in case I put any Asian references in.)

Many people wanted to come comfort him, but they stood away because they weren't entirely sure how he would handle them trying to get through to him. This was understandable considering how often his chakra would flare.

He was constantly going from despair to his friends fate and anger at himself at not being able to prevent it in the first place, as well as at those responsible.

Every time he got angry at himself or those he had cut down, his chakra would flare, not in large scale since on an unconscious level he knew that it would not be a good idea to let his chakra loose in a hospital, but every time he flared, you could see a small aura around the blond. One that would occasionally have the smallest tint of red in it.

This red tint that would sometimes occur was another reason they hung back. The doctors and nurses knew that the boy was still in control. That was not the problem. The problem was that if you got to close when the red tint was there, then you would start to really feel what the kid was feeling. That red tint was like a radio tower broadcasting the kid's emotions to a small, five foot radius area around him. Whenever someone tried to get close to him while that tint was there, they would gasp and quickly draw away. What they did not realize was that the Kyubi was trying to get them to just leave his host and student alone so that he could work out his problems by himself. Although if this kept up, he was going to take matters in his own hands.

Naruto just sighed and once again went through the loop of his thought track. 'Hard C to easy B-rank my foot! We were outnumbered, outmatched, and outclassed! We should never have taken that mission, even if we could have handled it if that info had been correct. I should have been able to do more! Because of my weakness, Matto and Heza could have died. As it is, they'll be lucky to still be ninja in a year. I should of just trusted my instinct.'

(Flashback)Village Hidden in the Leafs: On approach to Hokage Tower: four days prior

Team 7 was currently headed to the Hokage Tower to get a new mission. They were planning on getting another c-rank to keep their skills sharp. Sparring with each other was all good and all, and they were improving that way, but sparring each day only held its charm for so long. The team all agreed that it would be a good idea for them to get out of the village for a short time. As they got to the gate, the guards nodded at them and let them through, and they made their way to the floor where the missions are handed out. Once they reached the floor, the team found to the Genin's surprise that along with the Hokage, Iruka and Mizuki were currently working the desks. The two would often do this during the summer months to keep a steady income, but the academy wouldn't be out for another month or so.

Iruka noticing the looks from his former students chuckled and before they could ask told them about how one of the main water lines had busted when a student got a little too trigger happy with a water justu his family had taught him and had somehow forced the water from the main pipe to come after him.

Naruto shook his head at that. Apparently the guy hadn't even mastered the justu, which would have allowed him to control where he drew the water from for the attack. Now, because one student hadn't finished working on one justu, the entire first floor was being drained today. While the hokage still found it slightly amusing, it also still gave him a headache thinking about all the paper work he had to do because of it, shadow clones or not.

Shaking his head to get that particular memory out of his head, Sarutobi looked up at the team that was quickly becoming one of his favorites. And not just because of Naruto being in it either. This team had an almost perfect track record. They always finished their missions on time and almost always returned to the village without a scratch on them.

But unlike most teams that became that good, they didn't let it get to their heads. They were confident, not cocky, a trait he was glad the team members shared with each other. Those three knew their limits, and they were not afraid to admit those limits. Smiling inward to himself he decided that now was not the time to think along those lines and got the ball rolling.

"Hello Team 7. Here for your usual? Or would you like another C-rank?"

"C-rank if you please, Hokage-sama. We all feel that we need to get out of the village for a couple of days at least." Kakashi answered while his three charges nodded their heads.

Sarutobi nodded knowing that even with Naruto's shadow clones doing most of the work they take that the team needed to get out of the village every once in a while so that they not only could keep their skills up, but to get a change of scenery.

"Very well, lets see what we've got." He pulled out the list of C-rank missions and begin looking through them. A few of them caught his eye and he read them out to them. "All right, we have a simple courier mission to the capitol, nothing special on that one, just sending a few documents to the daimyo. There is also another courier mission to the Sand Village, again nothing special on that one. And finally, we have a bandit elimination problem. A group of bandits have been striking a few of the merchant supply caravans that are usually sent here. We believe that they are a relatively small group. The caravans that are usually attacked carry supplies such as emergency grain and medical supplies. Although a few have been ninja supply caravans which lead us to believe that they are opportunity strikes and that they sell off what they don't want. Which will it be?" He said looking up.

Kakashi looked to his squad and noticed Naruto unconsciously cracking his knuckles. Raising an eyebrow at the blond, said blond realized just what he did right then and got a little embarrassed. "I take it you want to take the bandit mission, eh Naruto?" Kakashi asked with his patented eye smile.

"Yeah, I guess. I mean don't get me wrong, I'm fine with any of them, but it could be a good work out."

The other two simply nodded their heads in agreement with their teammate and Kakashi accepted the mission scroll for the bandit mission. Opening the scroll he gave it a quick glance and told his team to grab their gear for a maximum week long mission and to meet him at the north gate in on hour. Nodding, all three shushined away which surprised their former teachers who looked at Kakashi like he just grew a second head. The hokage just chose to raise one of his eyebrows at the copy nin. Kakashi noticed and his face, or what you could see of it anyway clearly said "what?" before he too left in a poof of smoke.

Hidden Leaf Village North Gate: 58 minutes later

Every one was waiting at the north gate for Naruto to show up. The other three found this slightly odd since Naruto was usually at a meeting spot at least five minutes before the time to meet. Although he was late a couple of times, it was always for a good reason. Suddenly, they heard a poof of smoke and turned around to see Naruto standing behind them.

"There you are. We were starting to worry about you Naruto." Heza said smiling at her friend.

Naruto just got that smile of his and started rubbing the back of his neck. "Sorry guys." he said "I had a short run in with Konohamaru on the way here." 'Although I still have that bad feeling that I had half an hour ago. I better stay on guard.' He thought to himself, looking down for a moment. He then looked up. "So we going now or what?" The others nodded and they proceeded to leave the village behind.

Forest in the Land of Fire: Two hours north of the Hidden Leaf

Kakashi, Matto, and Heza were starting to worry about their blond companion. While it is true that on missions he was more quite than usual, this was nuts. He kept having a serious look on his face like he was trying to figure something out and not getting any closer to it.

Finally Matto had enough. Making sure he knew where to land next, he turned in midair and looked at Naruto. "Hey Naruto. What's wrong?" He said before landing and kicking off again not even looking down when he came close to the branch, although he did take a quick glance over his shoulder when he kicked off again. Still facing his teammate, he continued. "You've been like this ever since we left the village. What's bothering you?"

Naruto just sighed and said "I honestly don't know Matto. I've been having this feeling since before we left, but for the life of me I cant figure out what."

Heza just shrugged and said "Maybe it's just nerves."

"Yeah but why would I be nervous about going against a bandit camp? It's not like this is the first bandit raid we've done, and I didn't feel anything like this the first two times." He commented.

Kakashi turned his head from his position in the lead and decided to add his two cents. "While I highly doubt that we will run into serious trouble on this mission Naruto, if your gut is telling you something, it is best to follow it. All three of you be on guard." The three young shinobi nodded their heads and continued.

Next day

It had taken the group a little over twenty four hours to reach a close proximity to the area that raids were to usually happen. While it is true that they could have gotten their a lot faster, the group wanted to preserve their energy, so had gone at a relatively slow pace. When they got to the area where their mission scroll said they should be, Kakashi nodded to Naruto who, since he had done this before in previous bandit raids, knew what to do to help them locate their target.

Going through the necessary hand signs, he quickly had a large group of shadow clones around him. After he had created the clones, the original bit his thumb and started making hand signs. After a quick sequence, he slammed his palm on the ground and a large cloud of smoke and a bunch of pops were heard. When the smoke cleared, their was a large pack of regular sized Kitsune. (Forgot he could do that didn't you?) With a nod from the original the pack immediately separated and each fox went to a different shadow clone. The pack had done this before previously so knew what to do.

Each pair of clone and fox left to go see what they could find while another fox, this one a bit larger waited with Naruto. This one was the overall leader for the pack and would be staying with the original to help coordinate if he chose to keep the pack around. It wasn't long before the pack had located the bandit camp. Naruto quickly recalled the pack and when they came back, they quickly told the others about what they saw.

"Report." The lead fox said when everyone was back. One of the older foxes said "Naruto-sama, the camp is approximately twenty miles from here and consists of about thirty or some bandits. They are situated in a group of tents that while are sturdy they look like they can be moved easily. I believe that they move around every once in a while to stay hidden."

"Didn't work this time." Matto muttered under his breath, though everyone heard him the same.

Naruto nodded to the fox to continue and it did "While most of the tents look like they can only hold one or two people at most, there were two tents that were considerably larger than the others. One of which smelled heavily of steel and iron. I believe it is safe to assume it's where they keep their weapons. (The humans nodded at this.) The other tent smells more like a tavern and is most likely where they have their meetings. (Another nod.) The camp is located in a small clearing with a sentries post hidden in the trees around the clearing half way between each compass point. (Means instead of the usual N E S W you have them at NE NW SE SW) there is one archer in each post. That is all."

Naruto nodded, and seeing how their were only thirty bandits, decided to send the pack home since his clones should be able to make light work of them at that few of a number. With a yip, the whole pack went back to their summoning realm. As Naruto would soon learn, that was a big mistake on his part. Because unknown to the pack and shinobi, these weren't regular bandits. They were missing-nin who kept that little secret by only using regular weapons and Taijustu.

Thirty minutes later

The group decided to play it safe on this one and use an exploding variant of Naruto's shadow clones to take care of the group. Messy, but the best way to deal with the group. However, what they hadn't counted on was that these "bandits" were able to guess that when the only thing the clones did was actually enter the camp and just spread out evenly, that something was wrong. Right before they blew up, all of them used substitution justus. Right after the explosion, the missing nin tracked down team 7's position. And that is when all hell broke lose.

(With Team 7)

Team 7 heard the explosion and got ready to move out to take care of any stragglers. They were on their way when one of the groups of so called bandits ran into them. As soon as the nuke-nins saw them, one of them launched a flare, signaling the others. From there on out it was one big mess. While Naruto was able to get a ton of shadow clones out, none of them could really do much since the nins kept using wide range attacks to take them out en masse. The team was able to hold out for about half an hour before all hell broke lose.

(Naruto's pov)

'Maaaaaaaaaan! I knew I should have listened to that feeling!' I thought while dodging a guy who was wielding a six foot blade like a twig. 'I don't know how long we can keep this up!' All of a sudden I heard a scream of pain. Finding an opening, I quickly made two hand signs and grabbed the guys wrist. As soon as I made contact, the guy immediately lit up like a Christmas tree as over a thousand bolts went through him in a matter of seconds. With him out of the way I turned around and noticed Heza with a hand over her left shoulder and a bunch of arrows sticking out of her. Matto was standing over her, but he wasn't in much better shape either. All of a sudden, the two were hit by a devastating wind attack which quickly cut through their bodies. I could see they were still alive as I blasted the guy who did it with a wind attack of my own that immediately killed the bastard when I saw four nins coming to finish them off. Realizing that they couldn't do anything, I put all of my chakra into my legs and hoped to god that I could get there in time.

(Heza's pov)

I knew we were in serious trouble. I had gotten hurt by an electrical attack which shot my reaction time to hell. Right after, a bunch of arrows got me as well as an earth spear attack straight through my left shoulder. Matto stood over me trying to protect me but he got hit by the same electrical attack and got even more arrows trying to keep me safe. All of a sudden, I heard a sound that told me were seriously in trouble. "Wind Style! Stripping Wind Justu!" I know Matto heard it as well, and we both tried to get out of the way. But our bodies wouldn't move, and we got hit head on. I felt so much pain go through my body, I was sure I had lost a limb or two. Then I heard another wind attack, thankfully from Naruto. "Wind Style! Wind Scythe Justu!" Even though I couldn't see it, I somehow knew he had killed the other guy. All of a sudden, Matto and I saw four guys coming at us with swords, and I knew this was it. Closing my eyes, I waited for the pain to come when I suddenly heard a squelching sound and a warm liquid hit me. Opening my eyes, they immediately went wide with horror for there in front of me…

(Matto's pov)

We were in serious do do, and I knew it, I had tried to protect Heza as best as I could, but I ended up getting hurt just as bad if not worse. I felt the wind justu go straight through my body, and it felt like I went through a blender. I heard Naruto cast a wind justu of his own and somehow knew he killed the guy who sent the other one. I mentally sighed in relief. I didn't think I could handle another attack like that. All of a sudden, I saw four nins land on a branch in front of us. Each one had a sword and I saw the grins on their faces and knew that this was it. They suddenly pushed off at a high speed straight for Heza and me and out of the corner of my eye, I saw her close hers. I kept my own eyes open determined to not give those bastards the satisfaction that would give them when a blur streaked right out of the corner of my eye and stopped right in front of us. I had just enough time to see Naruto facing the nins with his arms outstretched before the nins got to us. My eyes instantly widened when…

(Normal pov)

SQUEEEELCH!

Naruto had just barely gotten in front of his teammates in time. However, it came at a terrible price. He now had four swords ran straight through his body straight to the hilts. His lungs, stomach, and kidney were all punctured. He noticed the shock on the nins faces at what just happened and turned his head to look over his shoulder at Matto and Heza who both had looks of horror on their faces mixed with blood over their bodies.

"Are you guys all right?" He asked and Matto just nodded numbly. The four ninjas smirked and as one pulled out their swords. Then one of them spoke up.

"Well, well, well. I guess it's true what they say. You leaf ninja will give your lives for each other. To bad you're all going to die anyway. Although I guess the two of you are lucky to have a friend willing to die for you. But it's over now." With that said, the four stepped up to finish the job when all of a sudden…

(Kyubi's pov)

Kyubi watched from inside the seal as the human he has come to call his son and his teammates did their best to survive from the overkill that the so called bandits were becoming. Even as he watched in fear for him and his friends, he couldn't help but be proud at how they were holding up.

All of a sudden he heard a scream of pain in a voice that he recognized. When his son turned around, he saw the other two brats on a tree branch together in a real bad shape. All of a sudden he felt the wind being manipulated and saw an attack hit them dead on when they tried to move their unresponsive bodies to get out of the way. He immediately sensed his son's shock and rage before he immediately manipulated wind as well and killed the person who dared attack his friends like that. When his son turned his head again, he saw the four ninja with the swords and immediately knew what was going to happen. His son put all the chakra he had into his legs and kyubi put in some of his own to help even as he had one thought **'this is going to hurt like hell.'**

All of a sudden, he felt enormous pain rip straight through his son's nervous system. He watched as his son asked his teammates if they were all right, listened to the nins laughing and mocking his son, all the while rage was slowly building up. Right when the nins began coming closer, red chakra started flowing past the seal with one thought running through his head. **'Not this time you bastards.'**

(Kakashi's pov)

Kakashi was having a bit of trouble himself, He had resorted to using his chidori much the same way Naruto used his chakra hands and was cutting through the ninja every chance he got. But it was tiring to keep the chidori going like that and he was running low on chakra.

He had just got through the last bastard around him when all of a sudden, he heard a scream. Turning around, he saw the nin shoot a wind justu towards two of his students. He watched in growing horror as they were hit dead on. He saw Naruto hit the guy with a wind attack of his own which killed the guy by beheading and then saw as he turned his head and immediately became a blur.

Kakashi's horror only grew when he saw four swords pierce his sensei's son's chest. Grief and rage built up inside of him when all of a sudden he felt a chakra that had not been felt for close to thirteen years. And all of a sudden, hell came to earth to visit.

(Normal pov)

All of a sudden, red chakra formed around Naruto, completely healing his injuries. The ninjas started to get scared and started to back away, but then something happened that made them literally piss in their pants. The chakra took on the form of a fox head and then covered him in what could only be called a cloak of chakra that made the kid look like a giant one tailed fox.

But it wasn't just the appearance that made them scared. It was the feeling they got from it. It felt like the devil himself was there, and they knew they were dead.

Naruto stood up and immediately killed the four by slicing straight through them with a horizontal cut, causing them to fall and the two halves of their bodies to separate on the way down. (Think of what happened to Darth Maul in Episode I)

Out of the thirty ninjas that were at the camp, twelve had not entered the fight yet, hanging back as reserves while the others fought and were the intruders down. Now while some would call that being a coward, these guys knew they were the weaker group and hung back thinking that they could handle any after the others were done fighting.

They laughed when they saw what happened to the three kids and thought to themselves that it would all be over soon. And they were right, just not in a way they thought.

They watched in shocked horror when the red chakra came out and as the blond kid sliced straight through the other four ninja with nothing but his chakra covered arm. Their horror grew to extreme levels when the kid that they now knew was a demon in human skin turned to face them. And then there was nothing left of them.

The other three members of team 7 were not sure what exactly had happened. One second Naruto was on the branch with his two teammates. The next second, he was next to the twelve ninja that hadn't joined in, with the only thing showing that they were ever actually their a bunch of limbs strewn about. A second later, the red chakra went back into Naruto's body, and he dropped to a knee and started panting.

He took a few breaths and headed back to his two teammates who just looked at him in amazement and with just a small bit of fear. Kakashi came over as well and started looking at his charges.

Realizing that while some of the wounds were certainly severe, given proper first aid they were not immediately life threatening. He and Naruto started patching the two up the best they could before taking off as fast as possible to the leaf with the two on their backs.

En route to the Hidden Leaf village: One hour till arrival

Naruto and Kakashi were using as much speed as the could to get their teammates to safety. Whereas it had taken them more than a day to get to the camp, they were now running like they had hounds from hell on their heels, cutting the travel time down to five hours. Matto and Heza had been slipping in and out of a type of semi-unconsciousness.

They were both trying to figure out what had happened to their best friend while they were awake. Finally, Matto couldn't stand it any more and asked from Kakashi's back what happened. Naruto sighed since this was definitely NOT how he wanted his friends to find out about his adopted father.

With a heavy heart, he told the two about what really happened almost thirteen years ago and about how he had gotten training from the kyubi who was now more like a father to him than anything else. The two were shocked about what Naruto had been hiding from them for all those years but realized it explained a lot about the blond, especially the looks he used to always received from the villagers and how he always seemed to heal so quickly. Naruto told them that he would understand if the two no longer wanted to be his friends which immediately shocked the two to their core.

Heza's response was one that Naruto really needed to hear and that Matto could only nod his head while agreeing with her. "Why would we want to no longer be friends? You are a jail, not the prisoner. And by the sounds of things, that prisoner didn't do what he did on his own free will either. You both have gone through so much that has not been your fault. It wouldn't be right to leave you nor do we want to."

Both Naruto and the Kyubi inside of him were grateful to the two. Naruto and Kakashi continued on their way, both glad to have heard what they did.

Hidden Leaf Hospital

As soon as they got to the gates, the two still standing ninja were immediately escorted to the hospital where doctors quickly took the two wounded and started working on them. The copy nin and his student then waited for a few hours for the doctors to come out.

When they did, the gave the two news that shocked them to their very cores. Matto and Heza had taken too much damage to their bodies. While the arrows and lightning style justu attacks certainly did a number on them, it was the final wind justu that was the straw on the camel's back.

It had cut through the muscles and bones making their arms and legs practically useless. While the doctors had been able to heal their injuries, the damage had been done. While the injuries were healed, they had been so severe that it would be at least a year before the two could even think about doing more than a D-rank, and even that wouldn't be for at least two months while their bodies were taught how to properly move around again. There was actually a five percent chance that the two could never actually be ninja ever again. Naruto was shocked to hear this and went into a state of depression afterwards, blaming himself for what happened.

(AN I know that some of you are wondering why the two did not body flicker to the village. The reason is simple. The shushine technique is not a long range teleport technique. It has a limited range. It would not make sense to make jumps with the technique when they were in an extreme rush and could better use their chakra the old fashioned way.)

(End Flashback)

Naruto's mind was a mess. Kyubi was about to drag his son into his mind scape and smack some sense into the kid when both demon and host sensed a familiar presence come close. All of a sudden the two felt a pair of slim yet well built arms wrap around the blonde's waist.

Hinata had heard what had happened when she overheard her classmates Sakura and Ino talking about how Ino had seen a blond kid and a silver haired Jounin racing to the hospital with two kids on their backs. She had immediately ran to the hospital and when she found Kakashi sadly leaning against a wall, asked just what had happened.

Listening to Kakashi, she immediately grew shocked at what had happened. She knew about the kyubi since Naruto would sometimes take her into his mindscape to train with the fox since the big guy thought he could show her a few things while he was in human form.

She had been shocked to learn the boy she had become so close to held a demon she was taught was killed in school. It didn't change how she saw him though for which he was grateful. After her talk with the scarecrow like Jounin, she went looking for her favorite blond haired friend only to find him leaning against a window with his chakra pulsing, occasionally with a red tint whenever someone got too close.

Somehow instinctively knowing what was going on, she walked over to her first real friend and wrapped her arms around him, causing him to tense slightly. Rising a little on her toes, she whispered into his ear "Don't worry Naruto. Everything will be all right, I'm here for you."


	9. Bell Test: Take Two: Part One

Bell Test, Take Two, Part One, Meeting The New Guys

Author's Notes: Hey guys, a couple of things. One first and foremost, If you are reading this then please head to my page and check out the potential story ideas I have posted. They have been up for a week now and no one has given me any feedback what so ever. I PROMISE that if I take up either or both of them clones will NOT be affected. Second I am going to give you a fair warning now. Yes this is part one for the bell test, but like I did before the actual bell test well be in part two. This chapter will be covering how Naruto copes for the next two weeks and grabbing Sasuke and Sakura and ending right when Kakashi says "begin." So sorry guys no fight scenes just yet. That being said, lets get started.

Hidden Leaf Village: Day after "Bandit Mission"

Word of what had happened to Naruto's team got around the village fast. People were wondering how a mission could have such bad Intel for it. Almost everyone was wondering how a Genin team that has only been together for just around a year could have gotten out of that without actually any of the Genins dieing.

Most of the younger groups figured that Naruto had proved his nickname of one man army and simply swamped the missing nins with so many numbers that they had to fall.

Most of the older ninjas however had another idea. They believed that Naruto had somehow tapped into the Kyubi's power when things got rough. When some of them confronted Kakashi about this idea, they were shocked to find they were right. There would have been a mass panic except for the fact that Kakashi told them exactly how it happened.

When the older shinobis heard about the conditions they were in at the time, they realized the blond had no choice in the matter. And while they were concerned that he had done it at all, they were relieved to hear that he dropped the chakra cloak as soon as all the enemy nin were taken care of.

They all agreed to keep the fact that Naruto had used the Kyubi's chakra to themselves and that they would do their best to make sure the actual truth was not made known to the younger group by encouraging the shadow clone army rumor.

It goes without saying that when Naruto heard of this he was extremely grateful to them. Meanwhile, the Hokage had decided that Naruto was not mentally fit to be on active duty right now and gave him and Kakashi the week off so that he could cope.

Speaking of Naruto, he was handling what happened reasonably well thanks to Hinata. The two had a long talk the day he got back and she was able to get him out of his depressed state. The two started spending so much time together that they actually moved from just friends to something more. And while it wasn't a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship yet, they were definitely getting close.

In the afternoons for the next couple of weeks, Hinata and Naruto were almost always seen together, whether they were training or just hanging around the village.

Mizuki and Iruka helped out as well, both had their own talks with the blond while Mizuki took it one step further by helping Naruto pull off a few pranks to blow off some steam.

What really did the trick for him was when he painted the hokage monument so that each face's hair had a different tie-dye color to it. No one knew how he managed doing that without being noticed until he was done, though some wondered briefly if he could do genjustu after all.

There was one other person that really helped Naruto pull through: Rock Lee. Lee would challenge Naruto at least once every day and would really put the sapphire eyed boy through his paces. This was good for Naruto because it not only made him take his mind off the mission, it also pushed him to get better with each match. By the end of the week, the blond was back to the way he was, and was ready for active service again.

But although Naruto was mentally ready to be back on active duty, He and Kakashi were only a two man team, meaning they could only do D-ranks until they got new teammates.

And while Naruto had been relieved to hear his two teammates would be fully recovered in a year at most, neither one want him or Kakashi to wait for them. So it was decided that Kakashi would receive two of the academy students that would be graduating in a week.

Naruto was hoping to get Hinata as one of his new teammates, but unfortunately the council had other ideas. They had basically ordered Kakashi to take on the last Uchiha due to the fact that he had the Sharingan.

This in itself wasn't the problem though. The problem was that Sasuke was rookie of the year and the top kunoichi always went with it in team selections. And while Hinata had been progressing quite rapidly, she was still just behind another girl. One by the name of Sakura Haruno.

Naruto was convinced the council was out to screw him over after he found out. He had asked hokage if it was possible to get the Hyuga heiress on his team but when the hokage took it to a council meeting the council said that rules were rules.

Now normally, Naruto would have been fine even with the Uchiha. Sure, he was an arrogant jerk with a worse superiority complex than his classmate Neji.

But Naruto was sure he could knock some sense into the so called genius if he really had to. No, what really made Naruto pissed was that according to Hinata, this Haruno girl was the worst kind of kunoichi out there: a fan girl. Groaning when he had heard this, he had asked to see the girl's stats from Iruka who when told that she was going to be his teammate let him see the girl's records.

Naruto was not impressed when he saw that she was only the top kunoichi due to her book smarts. However Naruto was willing to give the girl a chance, and hopefully be able to get her out of her fan girl stage.

Because besides oath breakers, the worst type of ninja in his book was someone who became one to chase after someone else. In Naruto's book if you become one to prove yourself, fine.

But do it to try and get a boy or girl, and you're a waste of the teacher's time and energy. While both Hinata and Naruto knew that they couldn't be on the same team, they agreed to get together as often as they could in between training and missions.

Naruto told Hinata that if she ever needed help in her training to keep coming to him whenever he was in the village. With the graduation exam coming up, and being two members short of being able to take missions outside of the village, Naruto and Kakashi decided to give Hinata special training each day after the academy getting her ready for the big day which Hinata greatly appreciated, and by the end of the week she felt ready to take the test head on.

Day of Graduation: Team 7's Training Grounds

The day was pretty much the same as the rest of the week had been for Naruto and Kakashi. One thing that was different was that Naruto had walked Hinata to the academy that morning.

When the two reached the academy, Naruto had wished her luck and pecked her on the cheek. This made Hinata go into a heavy blush since she was still amazed of Naruto at times.

Seeing her blush made Naruto chuckle and he sent her off with a quick goodbye and give them hell. This made Hinata break out of her blush and giggle a little before nodding and walking into the academy ready for whatever it would bring.

Naruto had noticed Mizuki leaning against a wall when this happened who happened to be grinning his head off while he watched. Naruto just cocked his eyebrow as if to ask "What?" causing Mizuki to burst out laughing. Rolling his eyes and shaking his head a little, Naruto had waved and headed out to meet with Kakashi at the training grounds. Which leads us to the present.

Naruto and Kakashi were both panting while standing across from each other. Ever since the two had met up at the training grounds, they had been going at it with each other all morning, stopping only for a quick lunch before starting back up.

While this in itself wasn't too unusual for them on some days when they would be working on Taijustu, today was almost pure Ninjustu, and the two had never gone on this long with just that form of combat.

While the two hadn't used any killing moves, they had used so many justus per minute that anyone passing by would think that the fourth great shinobi war was taking place. This was the scene that Hinata walked in on with a smile on her face which quickly turned into a look of complete awe when she watched.

(Hinata's pov)

I was walking from the academy to Naruto's training grounds feeling real good about myself. I had passed with flying colors in the graduation exam and I couldn't wait to tell Naruto and Kakashi-sensei.

When I got close, I could hear that the two were going at it with Ninjustu but didn't really pay any mind to it since I just figured they were keeping their skills up. That all changed when I walked in with a smile on my face only for my eyes to open wide at what I saw.

Naruto had just launched a huge water dragon at Kakashi-sensei who quickly used a water wall to defend and immediately sent out water bullets to counter Naruto's attack. Naruto countered with an earth wall and taking a page out of his sensei's book, sent earth bullets at his teacher, who countered with a lighting move that looked like a bunch of senbon needles shooting out. (Think Sasuke's chidori attack when fighting Deidara)

While most of the needles were stopped when they collided with the earth bullets, a good number kept coming towards Naruto who quickly used one of his wind justus to knock out the justu. When Kakashi saw this he took advantage of the wind by sending a fire justu towards his student. Just as the fire reached him, Naruto summoned a water wall which the fire immediately made contact with, causing Naruto to be incased in a cloud of steam. All of this happened in about fifteen seconds and I was amazed at the speed that their hands were moving in the hand signs they were using.

(Normal pov)

Naruto was using the steam cloud as a chance to catch his breath for a second. As it dissipated and he began ready to go at it again, he notice Hinata standing at the entrance to the training grounds. Kakashi noticed where he was looking and saw Hinata as well.

Naruto just looked at Hinata before asking "What?"

Hinata shook herself out of her stupor and said "Sorry, it's just that I've never seen anyone use justus that fast before."

Kakashi chuckled and said "Well Hinata, if you thought that was fast, you should see Naruto when he gets serious."

Hinata gasped and looked at Naruto who had the decency to blush a little while scratching the back of his head while laughing a little. "Ah, don't listen to him Hinata. I'm not that fast."

Kakashi just chuckled but left it at that. Remembering why she came, Hinata told the two about how well she did in the exams and the two told her that they never had a doubt how well she would do. Deciding to celebrate, the three took off to Ichiraku's.

Hidden Leaf Village Academy: Day of Team Placement

It was the morning of the team placements, and Hinata couldn't help but sigh while she was sitting down, thinking about how it wasn't fair that she couldn't be on Naruto's team. At least she knew that her other teacher, Kurenai, would be her new sensei.

She was always a mother figure for her after her mother had died. She sighed again as Sasuke's two biggest fan girls, Ino and Sakura, got to the door and were arguing about who would get to sit next to "their Sasuke."

'Hard to believe that Sakura well be on his team instead of me. Though I bet she well be happy to know that her precious Sasuke well be on her team.' Hinata thought to herself while putting her head on the desk waiting for Iruka to come in.

It wasn't long before he did, and when he got everyone's attention, he started giving the speech he always gives his graduating class. Afterwards, he started listing the team placements. Everything was going good till he reached team 7.

"Team 7 will consist of Sasuke Uchiha (said emo looked up) And Sakura Haruno." Iruka said only to be interrupted by a yell from Sakura, something about true love prevailing. After getting a glare from not only Iruka but also most of the girls, she sat down and Iruka continued. "Due to certain events, you two will be joining the members of last year's Team 7. Your sensei will be Kakashi Hatake and your fellow Genin will be Naruto Uzumaki. I suggest you two listen to both of them."

At the name Naruto, the whole class started whispering while taking occasional glances at Hinata, who getting a little nervous from all the attention, sunk down a little into her seat. Sasuke and Sakura were thinking to themselves that it was odd that they were joining a team that had been made last year and were wondering just what had happened to the other two members.

'Wonder why it's just these Naruto and Kakashi people.' Sakura thought.

'Naruto and Kakashi eh? Looks like I get to have some training with the guy after all.' Sasuke thought, remembering what Iruka and Mizuki had said about Naruto a while ago when Hinata had wiped the floor with that fan girl.

Iruka finished explaining the team formations and told them that they had one hour break before needing to be back in class to meet their new Jounin instructors. Hearing this, Hinata did a shushin out of the class room, surprising the hell out of everyone else.

'When did she learn to do that?' Iruka thought before remembering Naruto telling him about how Kakashi had taught him, Matto and Heza how to do it but that they only did it when they were in a hurry.

'Guess Naruto and Kakashi taught her more than just Taijustu.' he thought with a chuckle while leaving the classroom. Outside of the classroom in a branch of a tree, Hinata watched the reactions of the class and smiled.

'Damn that felt good.' she thought to herself before jumping down to go find her two new teammates. (By the way, in case you haven't noticed, Naruto's pranking side has rubbed on her a little.)

One Hour Later

After the hour was up, the class was all back in the classroom waiting for their new instructors. It was only a minute or two when the first one showed up, and boy were the class surprised. Instead of an adult walking in through the door like they expected, a blond haired boy with whiskers on his cheeks and the bluest eyes they have ever seen came in and went to the teacher's desk.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki. Will Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno please come with me." While he said it politely enough, almost everyone heard the undertone that told them it wasn't a request. While the two students were getting up, the two had different thoughts.

'This is the one who trained the Hyuga? He don't look like much.' Sasuke thought to himself thinking that he could take him. (Not in your lifetime kid.)

'He looks kind of cute, oh who am I kidding? He's hot! But not as much as Sasuke-Kun.' Sakura thought to herself while her and most of the girls noticed a very well toned muscled body which spoke of years of training.

While the two were stepping down to the level Naruto was at, he was looking around the rest of the classroom. Spotting Hinata, he gave her a small smile which she returned. When the two rookies got to him, he nodded to Hinata before leading his new charges out of the classroom and into the village thinking to himself, 'This should be interesting.'

Hidden Leaf Village: En route to memorial stone

Naruto led his two new teammates out of the academy and started heading towards his training grounds, or more specifically, the memorial stone that is next to it. As they left the academy, Naruto decided that he should give the rookies a fair warning about what to expect about him and Kakashi. As they passed the gate, he started talking, gaining the two's attention.

"All right guys, since we're going to be a team now, there are a few things you should know about me and Kakashi-sensei. First and foremost, if we tell you to do something, you do it. We won't be trying to make you go through any sick initiation rites or anything like that. We personally find them a waste of time. That being said, if we tell you to do fifty jumping jacks while singing the alphabet, we expect you to do exactly that. (Both rookies looked at like he was crazy but Naruto ignored them.) Second, and you will have to forgive us for this, but we are still recovering a little bit about what happened to our team."

Sakura took this as a chance to ask what had been on her mind when she heard that they were joining an older team. "Naruto, I've been wondering. What happened to make your team lose two teammates?"

Naruto got a hard look on his face before continuing "Bad intel. Now don't interrupt me. As I was saying, Kakashi and I are still handling it so you will have to deal with a few perks. While I've been able to cope a lot better, Kakashi has taken to short periods of brooding though not often. One other thing, Kakashi will probably be an hour late at most meetings, and before you ask, it's because he is remembering things. Me and my teammates had gotten him out of that in the past year, but with what happened two weeks ago, he's slipped back into it, although fortunately it's not as bad as before. I'm still working on getting him out. But know this, once he gets his head on straight, he is one hell of a teacher and he does not take upstarts lightly."

At this he glances at Sasuke and continues "Neither him nor I care for names. You earn you place with us. Don't expect us to baby you either, you better know right here and right now that I will make your life a living hell if you don't pull your own weight."

Sasuke just scoffed at this thinking that their was no way Naruto could pull through with that threat while Sakura was starting to get nervous.

"That said," he continued "If you do what we tell you I guarantee that you well come out a lot better than you came in." After that he grew silent while they kept walking to their destination. (I know it is a big change in attitude for Naruto, but remember that he just lost his two best friends as teammates and really doesn't like Sasuke's "I'm better than you" attitude.)

Meanwhile, Kakashi was at the memorial stone thinking about how he had lost his own team and now almost lost two of his students in a similar fashion. 'I promise Obito, I will do my best to keep your nephew safe, and I won't let anything happen to your son either sensei.' he thought to himself while also promising himself to do the best he can for his students. Suddenly he sensed a presence that he has grown to care for like that of an uncle to a favorite nephew. Naruto was here.

The Genin and two Genin hopefuls came to the training ground of team 7 to see Kakashi kneeling down next to a memorial stone of some sort. Even though he knew his teacher knew they were there, Naruto spoke up. "Kakashi-sensei, I've brought our new teammates." Kakashi just gave a slight nod showing he heard and took a few moments to collect his thoughts. Standing up and then turning around he gave a quick eye smile to Naruto who returned it and then looked at his new charges.

"Hm. My first impression of you two…you got a rude awakening ahead of you."

The two hopefuls looked startled and Sasuke immediately got angry. "And what's that supposed to mean?" he asked with an edge in his voice.

He immediately regretted asking when Naruto swept his legs. Looking up, he saw Naruto looking down at him with a frown.

"It means that you have a long way to go Uchiha, and I would watch what you say around us."

Sakura watched with a frown thinking that Naruto was being a little rough but put it down to missing his former teammates. Kakashi just sighed and helped Sasuke up before turning to Naruto and said "I'll take him." to which Naruto just nodded and put a hand on Sakura's shoulder. Before she or Sasuke could ask about what they were doing, the two shushined their new charges out of the area.

Rooftop of the Academy

'We're back at the academy.' Sakura noticed when the smoke cleared. Kakashi and Naruto walked past her and Naruto hopped over the back of a bench that was there and sat on the end while Kakashi walked around and leaned against the rail facing him.

"Boy this brings back memories." Naruto said softly to which Kakashi nodded.

Then when they both realized the two hadn't followed, Kakashi asked "Well aren't you going to join us?"

Both hopefuls started and came to sit next to Naruto with Sakura in the middle and Sasuke on the end.

"All right you three, let's introduce and talk a little about ourselves so that we know a little bit about each other." Kakashi said once they were all seated.

"What do you mean Sensei?" Sakura asked while Naruto slightly rolled his eyes.

'How thick can you get? I can't believe she was the top ranked in book smarts.'

"You know, your likes, dislikes, dreams, and hobbies. Stuff like that." Kakashi said.

"Um why don't you go first so that we get an idea." Sakura said. Kakashi and Naruto shared a look at how ironic what Sakura and Heza had said were. Both thought the same thing: 'At least Heza just wanted me/sensei to go first to get to know me/him. (I know, I know. It is always the girl isn't it. But trust me, that is as far as the similarities between her and Heza go.)

'Oh man, sensei just gave it to her as plain and simple as possible and she still doesn't know? How did this girl ever survive the academy?' Naruto thought to himself.

Kakashi had similar thoughts but decided to play along. "Very well. My name is Hatake Kakashi. I'm the kind of person who doesn't fell like talking about his likes and dislikes! My dreams for the future are none of your business… but anyway, I have lots of hobbies."

Sasuke and Sakura both sweat dropped while Naruto burst out laughing.

'He said so much but we only learned his name.' The two thought. Naruto had a much different thought.

'I SO should've seen that coming! Never let it be said that Kakashi-sensei has no humor!'

Kakashi having a good idea about what Naruto was thinking chuckled as well while the other two were wondering just what kind of team they were in. Sakura finally couldn't take it anymore and asked "Um, what's so funny?" The two older guys stopped laughing and Naruto said "Inside joke." and left it at that.

"All right now that I've gone, it's your turn. Why don't you start pinkie." Kakashi said which earned a glare from said pink haired girl.

"All right, my name is Sakura Haruno. I like (glances at Sasuke with a blush). I dislike Ino! My hobby is (again looks at emo kid this time with a blush). My dream..(AGAIN looks at duck butt and lets out a small squeal.)"

'Great, she's worse than I thought.' Naruto thought while Kakashi thought along the same line.

'Looks like Naruto wasn't kidding when he said we had a lot of work to do on this one.' "You with the duck butt hairdo." Kakashi said pointing to the Uchiha which earned him a glare from said emo and a chuckle from Naruto. (And before you guys say any thing. Yes I am being cruel to him, but in truth I can sometimes picture a story where he and Naruto are best buds and even brothers in all but blood. It just depends on the story.)

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha. There are plenty of things I hate, but I don't see that it matters, considering there is almost nothing I do like. It seems pointless to talk about "dreams"…That's just a word…But what I do have is determination. I plan to restore my clan. And there's someone I have sworn… to kill."

'He is so cool.' Sakura thought looking at him.

Kakashi and Naruto just shared a look before Naruto said under his breath. "Idiot."

Unfortunately, everyone heard him and Sakura got mad and tried hitting Naruto on his head only to have him grab her wrist even before she raised it all the way. What really shocked the two hopefuls though was that he did it without ever breaking eye contact with his teacher.

Sasuke was shocked thinking that if he could do that without looking then what else could he do? But soon his pride took over, and he said in a dangerous tone of voice "Care to repeat that Uzumaki."

Said blond just sighed. "I said you are an idiot." When the Uchiha continued to glare at him he continued. "I know that you lost your clan and that you are in pain and angry at the one who did it. But having nothing but hate gets you no where. I will respect your wish to get justice for what has happened, but if you can't find something to protect in the meantime then you are only limiting yourself."

Sasuke couldn't take it any more. Grabbing Naruto's collar, he jerked the blond across the front of Sakura and got right in his face. "What would you know of my loss? You lost two teammates who I might add, are still alive. What do you know about losing your whole clan? Or about the pain of being alone? Huh? Answer me!"

Sakura was shocked at the outburst and starting to get scared while Kakashi had one thought. 'Now he's done it.'

Naruto looked into the last Uchiha's eyes and gently but firmly removed the heir's hand from his collar and with a calm voice that made even Kakashi shudder said. "I know what pain is Uchiha. I have grown up without knowing either of my parents. Know who they are, yes. But getting to KNOW them, no. You at least had your family for a while before they got taken from you. As for being alone? For most of my life no one in this village would ever give a damn about me. Most of the villagers had hated me and some even tried to kill me once. So believe me, I know what pain feels like, but I did not submit to it and you have no right to throw a pity party about it. You have always been adored and given attention. And yet you claim to be alone? Don't make me laugh."

Naruto calmly sat back down while Sakura and Sasuke were in shock. Sakura because of how her new teammate was apparently treated at one time in the past and Sasuke due to what the blond had said about not ever knowing his parents. Kakashi sighed and decided to get his team's mind off of these dark thoughts and steered them toward clearer skies.

"Well now, now that we have that out of our systems, it's time to talk about the test you two must take. And Naruto, you will be taking it as well. I know you passed before, but this is a new team so you have to take it again."

Naruto nodded at this since he figured he would have to do it again when he picked the two up from the academy.

Sakura looked to their teacher with a confused look on her face. "Test sensei?"

While Kakashi nodded, it was Naruto who answered "He's talking about the test to see if you will be Genin or not."

Sakura was shocked. "B-but we already took one at the academy. I thought that was the test."

Naruto shook his head and explained to the two how the Academy test was just to see if they had what it took to be Genin and that this test saw if they were actually ready for it or if they should be sent back to the academy for another year to learn what they had missed the first time.

Kakashi then told them to be at the training grounds they were at before at 7 am and then dismissed them. Sasuke and Sakura left right away with Sakura tried getting a date out of the last Uchiha without success. The two veterans just sighed while watching them leave and Kakashi turned to Naruto.

"How you holding up Naruto?" he asked his younger companion.

Naruto just sighed and said "Matto and Heza those two are not sensei. They seem to be more trouble than they are worth. The Uchiha has superiority issues while Haruno seems to be way to interested in him to actually concern herself with training. To be honest, I don't even know if I could work with them tomorrow for the test. Although knowing the council, they will probably give us hell if we don't at least pass the Uchiha."

Kakashi sighed at that. "I'm afraid your right Naruto. Especially about the council I'm afraid. Just try and do your best and we'll try to get them in the best shape we can afterwards. Make sure you get a good night's sleep tonight. Something tells me we're going to need it."

Naruto nodded and the two went their separate ways to prepare themselves for the next day.


	10. Bell Test: Take Two: Part Two

Bell Test: Take Two: Part Two: Breaking In The New Guys

Author's Notes: All right guys, I've decided to start the other two stories I've come up with. Remember that it usually takes me a day or two at most to write a chapter so there shouldn't be any problems with updates but if there are then this story will be the first one till it is finished. Also, I had read through my posted chapters looking for a reference to last chapter and noticed a ton of mistakes. While I am going to go through them and edit what's wrong, I need your help picking up on things. So if you see a mistake, please either review or send me an email saying what chapter and where in it is. Thanks. And just a fair warning to you now. While I am not turning them into gods, Hinata and Naruto after the time skip are going to be practically untouchable. With that fair warning aside, let's get started.

Hidden Leaf Village: Naruto's Apartment

Naruto was currently asleep in his bed. Or at least that is what anyone who was watching him would see. But in truth, he was having a talk with his father while the two were training together.

Naruto's Mind Scape

Naruto and the kyubi were having a mainly Ninjustu sparing match much like the one Naruto and Kakashi had that day. The two were mainly using fire and wind style justus while also using a couple of Taijustu moves if the two ever got close enough a couple of times.

The main difference was where as with Naruto and Kakashi their hands were a blur, the two fighting now were moving their hands so fast that even the longest chains of sequences only took a second or two. All the while the two were talking about the test that Kakashi was obligated to give and all the problems involved with it.

"You know, that council really pisses me off. I just know that they are putting that stuck up prick on our team just to spite me. And they expect me to work well with the brat and help him pass as well? That's like asking me to jump straight to the moon." Naruto said while launching a large fireball at his adopted father who expertly jumped over it and sent a wind blast at his son while making sure none of it touched the fireball passing under him. When the wind got close enough, Naruto manipulated it into a tornado and sent it right back at the big guy.

"**I know how you feel son, but we are just going to have to find a way to get him and that pathetic excuse for a kunoichi to pass. The good news is that at least that girl 'might' have a chance at being reached and brought to a more suitable level. Though I stress might."** As he was saying this, the tornado came right at him and he started a spin. When he came out of it, he had spin-kicked the tornado sending it off to the side where it started to fluctuate before completely bursting sending wind everywhere.

Naruto shook his head when he saw that and said "I can't wait for you to show me how you do that father."

Said fox just grinned and said **"In time my son."** before launching a fire ball himself at the blond who to his small amount of surprise saw his son create another tornado around him that turned into a fiery vortex when the fireball hit it. The fox got a proud grin as he watched his son maintain the funnel without it touching him and he started building its power up. Then with a motion of his arm, the blond gestured to the fox and the funnel bent and rushed the fox turned human. The fox just stood there and then _absorbed_ the fire into his body.

"Hey, no fair!" Naruto said playfully.

His father just laughed and said **"Your just jealous."**

"You got that right." Naruto said with a grin, before they decided to call it quits for the night.

Naruto sighed "We still have no idea what to do about the test tomorrow. I mean Kakashi told us it would be the same test as before, but how the hell am I going to get the Uchiha to listen to me. I can't even do the same thing I did last time since I'm sure Kakashi won't have that book with him, so I can't blackmail the guy to make it easier on all four of us."

The kyubi nodded before saying **"maybe you should knock the kid out and fight with a shadow clone transformed to look like him."**

Naruto considered in for a moment before sighing and shaking his head. "No good, that would just make it even harder to work with the guy when we do pass. And I doubt his fan girl would appreciate it either."

The fox sighed knowing his son was right and just said that they would have to figure something out in the morning and bade his son good night. After returning the gesture, his son left the mind scape and truly went to sleep.

The Next Day: Training Grounds 7

Naruto woke up at six the next morning and got ready. Half an hour later, he was out of the door heading to the training ground at a reasonably fast pace across the rooftops.

While he knew that Kakashi might be at least a little late, he knew it would still be a good idea to get there a little early. At the very least, he could set a few traps up. He got there ten minutes early and created ten shadow clones. Nodding to the original, the group began unsealing shuriken and kunai launchers that Naruto had built himself with the help of his former classmate Ten Ten.

They made sure that the launchers they used were chakra triggered instead of trip wire triggered since they were not sure how good the two rookies were around traps, if at all. Approximately five minutes later, everything was set up and the clones dispersed themselves, giving the original the memories of where the traps were placed. Just as this happened, Sakura and Sasuke entered the training grounds with Sakura once again asking Sasuke for a date and getting the usual response from the emo kid.

When the two looked to the training grounds, they saw Naruto and headed over to him. Naruto was currently drawing on a copy of a map of the area he had made after the first bell test to help when he, Matto, and Heza would play war games with Kakashi.

Right at the moment he was marking where all the clones had set up traps thinking that he could try and get Kakashi boxed in close to one of them with help from the other two although he personally wasn't holding his breath.

As the two approached him, Sakura suddenly remembered something. "Um, Naruto?"

Said blond looked up from what he was doing and Sakura took this as an invitation to continue. "I just remembered something, Kakashi-sensei, Sasuke-kun, (Naruto's got an irritated look for a quick moment at the word "kun") and I had talked about ourselves yesterday, but we never did hear about you." (Yes, I will admit I forgot him, but now that I think about it, this actually works good for the story.)

Naruto just looked at her for a moment before realizing that was the truth. "Very well." he said. "As you know, my name is Naruto Uzumaki. I like reading, and playing the occasional prank, though I don't do it as often now a days. (Both raised their eyebrows at that. (I swear, it's a recurring theme with these guys.)) I also like hanging out with my friends and the occasional meal of ramen. I dislike bullies and those who think they are better than others just because of who their parents were. (A pointed look at Sasuke.) I also dislike those who become ninja just to impress someone. (This time a pointed look at Sakura. Sakura was starting to get edgy while Sasuke was starting to get mad.) And I really _hate_ traitors and oath breakers, as well as those who make assumptions without getting all the facts. As for hobbies, I like to learn how to play different instruments, (another eyebrow raised by the two.) I am a semi-amateur gardener, and like learning new justus. As for dreams, I want to make my parents proud of who I am and become Hokage."

Sasuke snorted and Naruto raised an eyebrow at him. "How can someone like you be Hokage?" Sasuke asked.

Naruto just shook his head and said "That is what I hate about Uchihas and most Hyugas. You all make assumptions without all the facts." He left it at that when Sasuke got angry and tried to get in a fight again.

But Naruto just unsealed a guitar to the surprise of the other two and started playing Cliffs of Dover by Eric Johnson. In a branch near by, Kakashi listened with an eye smile.

He had of course seen what Naruto's clones had done and he approved of the choice to use chakra tripped launchers instead of trip wired ones. He had also seen Naruto draw on a copy of the map he had made of the area and knew that he was going to share the info on the traps with the two hopefuls once the test started.

He also had a feeling that Naruto knew he was there, but he just sat there listening to the music since it wasn't very often he actually heard Naruto play. And besides, he was just as good on a guitar as a violin or Native American flute. When the song ended, he shushined to a spot directly behind the hopefuls making them jump.

Naruto of course knew his sensei was there ever since he himself had came to the training grounds, which surprised him, but he figured Kakashi just wanted to see how he and the other two would interact while they waited. Deciding to play along he had kept the fact that he could sense his sensei nearby a secret, although he did make sure not to set up any traps where his teacher was.

Didn't want Kakashi getting any ideas about messing with them after all. So it was no surprise to him when his sensei appeared right between the two who he had been forced against his better judgment to help pass what was to come today.

He secretly enjoyed seeing the other two jump while looking at Kakashi with an even look before deciding to have some fun and adapted a look of surprise.

"Kakashi-sensei! Your actually on time! Is it going to snow today?" Naruto asked, getting weird looks from Sasuke and Sakura, while Kakashi who knew exactly what his favorite student was doing decided to play along.

"Why yes, didn't you get the weather forecast? There is going to be a huge blizzard in a couple of hours."

Naruto just grinned and said "Well then, I guess we should hurry and get started then."

The other two realized that they were having a fast one pulled over them and started getting mad when the other two burst out laughing at the looks on their faces. When the two got serious, Kakashi told them about the test with the bells which Sakura had immediately pointed out there were only two bells but three of them.

"Very good Sakura. You obviously had no trouble in math class. The reason why there are only two bells is that the one who doesn't get a bell by noon goes back to the academy. Not only that, but you will be tied to one of those poles over there and watch while I eat my lunch. Oh and Naruto, I didn't bring my book so don't even think about pulling that stunt again to pass."

Sakura was angry at the first sentence but she and Sasuke both got worried looks at the second sentence which quickly turned to confusion when they heard the final sentence. Turning to Naruto they saw him grin while he looked like he was remembering a particularly funny memory.

Finally Sakura let her curiosity get to her and asked "Uh, Naruto? What is Kakashi-sensei talking about?"

Naruto burst out laughing much to the chagrin of the cyclops in the group and just said "Well lets just say last time I showed my appreciation for a book series he likes to read and leave it at that." That only served to get them even more curious but neither of the vets (veterans) would explain further.

"All right then, now that you know what this test entails, is time to begin. Oh and one more thing Naruto, Try to limit yourself to low Chunnin levels." At this the other two looked at Naruto who just nodded while the two shared a thought 'Limit?' "Now then, you may begin, NOW!" Kakashi said and instantly shushined from the area and Naruto immediately noticed that he had completely masked his presence like only someone of a Jounin level or higher could do. Frowning a little bit, Naruto gestured to the two hopefuls and led them to the closest cluster of launcher traps which were set up to cover the four main compass points.

Once they sat down, Sasuke immediately asked Naruto "What are we doing here dobe? Why are you wasting my time when I should be getting one of those bells?"

Naruto raised his eyebrow at the word dobe but let it slide thinking that Sasuke was in denial about what Kakashi had said about limiting himself to low Chunnin Levels. Shaking his head, he simply said "And you are rookie of the year why?"

Sasuke got mad but before he could say anything Naruto continued "Kakashi-sensei is a Jounin, and one of the best in this village at that. What makes you think that you, who I might add are not even a proper Genin yet, can take him on by himself. I've been with him for almost a full year now and I know almost exactly what that guy can do, and let me tell you, he could wipe the deck with you in less than ten seconds."

Sasuke got even madder and said "Oh yeah? And you think you have a better chance?" (Oh, if only he saw the two go at it on the day of graduation.)

Naruto just chuckled and said "Maybe. Now do you want my help or not?"

"Not." Sasuke said and left. Sakura looked torn between following him and sticking with Naruto who just shook his while thinking how stupid it was to let pride get in the way of a mission.

Sakura decided to ask Naruto what he had in mind and Naruto explained how he had led their teacher into a corridor minefield the first time and how he hopped to do the same with traps he had set showing her where they were marked on the map but told her he wanted to see how the Uchiha did before they did anything.

With that said, he rolled up the map and sent a shadow clone henged to look like a small fox to follow Sasuke and see just how bad he was humiliated. Kakashi who had seen the whole thing from a branch, once again knew that his blond student most likely knew they were being observed and realized that the blond had indirectly asked him to show Sasuke he wasn't as good as he thought he was.

Taking off in the direction Sasuke went in a roundabout way, he thought to himself 'If only he had seen Naruto and me sparring two days ago. He would definitely have a different opinion. But Naruto really isn't one to show off to others just to prove a point.'

(I'll let your imaginations come up with for what happens next.)

Once the shadow clone had dispelled itself, Naruto just sighed and shook his head in a dejected manner. When Sakura asked what was wrong, he just got up and told her to follow him. They walked at a relatively slow pace for about ten minutes until they came upon a small clearing. Walking in, they saw Sasuke buried up to the top of his neck in the ground and looking royally pissed off about something. While Sakura looked shocked at him, Naruto just slowly shook his head and walked towards him.

Kneeling down, he asked "You going to listen to me now or should I just leave you here.?"

Sasuke just glared at him even more.

Naruto just sighed and said "Come on Sakura, lets go."

Sakura looked shocked "We're just going to leave him there?"

Naruto once more sighed and said "If he's not going to help then he is not worth digging out. Maybe while he is doing it himself he will realize that the only way we can get the bells is together." With that, he took off into the forest again using his nose much the same way he did in the previous test to start looking for his sensei.

While it is true he could have done this in the beginning, he had decided to try and get the other two to work as a team together first. Sakura didn't seem to have a problem listening to someone with more experience than her, but Sasuke was just too proud and stubborn.

Taking a page from his student's book, Kakashi had left a shadow clone to see what happened when Naruto and Sakura showed up. When it had dispelled itself, Kakashi just shook his head. Sakura wasn't as much of a lost cause as the two vets had thought but the fact that he had so soundly beat the Uchiha and he still wouldn't accept help frustrated the two to no ends.

'If this keeps up, we're going to have to all out fail him. I hope Naruto sealed a ton of aspirin this morning because we are going to need it when the council learns we didn't pass him.'

Like the last time, he quickly realized how Naruto was tracking him and decided to save them both time by heading towards one of the traps he had saw Naruto marked down on his map. He wanted to see how Sakura would handle working with Naruto when under fire.

Naruto smelled Kakashi heading to one of the traps and was grateful that his sensei had decided to spare them the charade since while last time this had been a proving ground, this time when it came to Naruto's tracking skills, it was just redundant.

Leading Sakura, he got into position and made sure she knew what to do. When he was sure she did, he triggered the trap, launching a ton of kunai at Kakashi. As soon as Kakashi was done dodging, he went at him with Sakura at his side and started a Taijustu match with Kakashi and him both keeping their fight down to low levels to give Sakura a chance.

'I'll give her this, she's determined not to lose.' Kakashi thought as he dodged a badly thrown punch from the pink haired girl. 'Though she really needs to work on her Taijustu.'

All of a sudden, Naruto widened his eyes and jumped back turning in the process to be facing the same direction as Kakashi was and used the same tornado justu he had used during his and his father's spar just as a fireball shot by over head.

Catching the fire ball and turning it into a vortex, he looked forward to see Sasuke's surprised face while the vortex continued spinning around him. Sakura was surprised as well while the two vets were just disappointed.

Naruto then stopped the wind in the vortex and using the heat it had generated then caused a few clouds to form with highly condensed moisture and using his water manipulation caused it to rain to finish extinguishing the flames around him.

Both hopefuls grew even more shock when he did this while Kakashi had one thought to himself. 'Show off. Though if that didn't get Sasuke's attention, nothing well.'

Naruto glared at the Uchiha and said in a dangerous tone of voice. "Sasuke, while using us as a diversion _might_ be considered teamwork, it is only so when planned and especially _not _when you shoot a fire ball right over our heads. Do something like that again and I'll make certain you end up in the hospital."

Sasuke scoffed at the but before he could say anything, the timer rang and the test was over.

Five minutes later, the four of them were in the main clearing of the training grounds. Naruto and Kakashi were standing with there arms crossed and looking at the last Uchiha who they had no qualms of tying to the middle post in the clearing.

Both shared the same thought 'what the hell are we going to do with this guy?'

Sakura was currently standing off to the side while looking down a little bit. While she was upset about how Sasuke was being treated, she was still amazed at what Naruto had just done.

'I can't believe he did that. Not only did he catch that fireball with a tornado, but he also made a small rain cloud to drench the flame.'

Kakashi started shaking his head. "Sasuke, Sasuke, Sasuke. What on earth are we going to do with you. You are the only one who did not realize the true purpose of the test, and not only that, you put your teammates in possible danger while you were at it." Sasuke just glared at him and Naruto.

Kakashi sighed and said to the three "Right, well Naruto and Sakura, go ahead and have your lunch, but make sure not to give any to Sasuke. We will try this again in fifteen minutes. But if you can't work as a team then I'm afraid Sasuke well have to go back to the academy." With that, he grabbed a lunch and shushined out of the way. Naruto once again could sense that his teacher had just gone to the edge of the woods to see how they would interact and realized that he wanted him to try and get Sasuke to understand before the test started again.

Sighing to himself at how hopeless that particular task seemed but remembering his words about the council last night, he grabbed a lunch and sat down next to the tied up Uchiha. Sakura looked uncertain but soon followed.

Opening his lunch, he took a look at Sasuke and for what seemed the hundredth time shook his head. "Now do you see why I asked you to work together with us Sasuke?"

Said emo just looked at the blond speaking and said "Why should I listen to you dobe?"

Naruto raised and eyebrow and said "Who is the dobe really Uchiha? Cause from where I'm sitting, the only one who was dead last in this test is the one who is currently tied to a post without a lunch." Sasuke growled but before he could say anything, Naruto continued. "You are going to learn eventually that you are going to have to work with others some times. No one can ever truly be a one man army. Not even me with my shadow clones. Even if I had a thousand clones out, I'm sure I would miss something someone else would have no trouble spotting. Please Sasuke, just this once, let me help."

Sasuke kept glaring at him for a minute. Finally turning his head he said one word. "Fine."

Kakashi popped in and said "Glad you two finally came to an agreement. Sakura and Sasuke, you two pass."

Kakashi untied Sasuke and turned to talk to all now three official Genins. "All right, now that Team 7 is official again, Sasuke and Sakura, Be here at 8 every morning unless I say so. Naruto I would like you to do the same thing for Matto and Heza if you don't mind." Naruto didn't look to happy at that but nodded anyway.

"What do you mean sensei?" Sakura asked noticing the look Naruto got.

"He means I will be the one doing must of the teaching in the morning before we all meet up for missions." Naruto replied.

Sakura had no problems with this since Naruto obviously knew what he was doing. Sasuke however was furious at the thought of being taught by someone who was only a year older than him. But he kept his mouth shut since he didn't want to ruin what he had just got. With that, the team split off for the rest of the day.

Hokage's Office

All of the Jounin who had agreed to take a Genin team were in the Hokage's office waiting for Kakashi to show up before they got started. With a pop and a small bit of smoke, Kakashi appeared in front of the Hokage's desk. Raising a hand and saying "yo" in greeting, he went over to a wall and leaned against it.

The hokage nodded to him before beginning. "Now that everyone is here, lets begin. How did the new teams do?"

Teams one through six all failed with the hopefuls either being downright hopeless, just needing a little more time at the academy, or just simply quitting being a ninja all together. When it came to Team 7, everyone looked at Kakashi wonder how his mix-matched team had done on the first day.

Sighing Kakashi said "Team 7: Passed, barely." The rest of the group were surprised when they heard this. They all knew about how good Naruto was and couldn't figure out why a team with him on it would almost fail, especially when that team had the top two rookies on it as well.

The hokage was curious as well and said "Kakashi, if I may ask, whey did a team which should have been one of the best teams made this year almost fail?"

Kakashi sighed and explained what happened between Naruto and the rookies. "Sir, things did not go very smoothly between Naruto and the rookies. The Uchiha has a superiority complex while the Haruno seems to be more interested in chasing the Uchiha than being a ninja. While Naruto was able to get her to work with him, Uchiha kept butting heads with him numerous times. It took me and Naruto tying him to a post to even consider working together. And even then he barely gave in. That boy is just too prideful for his own good."

The other Jounins listened and were surprised to hear that Naruto had such a hard time. Normally he could win anyone over. They knew this because most of the Jounins with teams decided to have a series of small war games, and Naruto was always chosen as the leader of his team.

Sarutobi sighed and said "By the sound of things, Naruto should be able to help Sakura with her problem, but the Uchiha might be a bit of a problem. We will just have to hope that he can get Sasuke's head on straight. Now then, what about the rest of the teams?"

The other two teams had also managed to pass, although it seemed they did a lot better. Once everyone was finished, Sarutobi thanked and then dismissed them. When they were gone, he sighed as he leaned back in his chair while looking out at the village. Taking a drag from his pipe, he thought to himself 'Naruto, I'm sure you will be able to get through this.'


	11. Introducing Dranks

Introducing D-ranks

Author's Notes: Hey guys. I know most of you are going to be disappointed to hear this, but after this chapter, I am going back to mainly once a week. Truth is the only reason I got so many chapters out so quickly was the fact that I was in the car dealership for a good four and a half hours so I could do more than one chapter at a time. I might write again in the middle of the week for this one, but since I'm planning on starting two other stories, those well be written first on week days. This one will always be my first priority though. With that said, get ready for some serious Uchiha bashing.

Hidden Leaf Village: En Route to the Hokage's Office: Directly After Bell Test

Naruto was angry. Actually angry didn't cover it, he was down right pissed. Sakura he could see doing his best to help out with training. Sasuke was another matter entirely.

It wasn't just the fact that he had that superior attitude that Naruto knew had no right being there. It was the pride as well. Sasuke in Naruto's opinion would always try to prove that he was better than him.

For Naruto the problem with that was not his own ego telling him to beat down some upstart that threatened him. No, what really made Naruto mad at the Uchiha's attitude that made him want to beat the kid to the ground right now was the fact that that kind of thinking got people killed on missions.

He was going to the Hokage to explain this to him, and he was hoping to get his approval to use any means necessary to get the kid's head on straight. Because if he didn't give the so called genius a much needed wake up call in the safety of the village, it would happen outside on a mission and the poor fool might not survive.

He and his father were currently discussing ways to get the kid to wake up, but they realized that anything too serious would get the council mad at them even with the hokage's approval. Unfortunately, it seemed to them that they would end up needing to do some pretty drastic things to get the kid to wake up. And even though father and son agreed most of the members of the council could go straight to hell, it did not change the fact that although they were a pain in the rear, the blond had to listen to them, hence his pissed off state.

Hokage's Office

Sarutobi was sitting at his desk looking out the window. The Jounins had finished their reports on the Genin test and had all been dismissed five minutes go. Kakashi had been one of the last ones out and had told the hokage that Naruto might be swinging by later to give his opinion about the test as well. Sarutobi knew that would most definitely be the case. Naruto was a good ninja, and liked to solve his own problems, but he would sometimes come to his former teachers or him for advice if he ever needed help.

And Sarutobi knew that Naruto would definitely need help dealing with the Uchiha since the council seemed to adore the last loyal Sharingan user. Especially since Naruto made it clear numerous times that he did not like people who let pride or those with well known last names get to their heads. Sarutobi was sure that the next few months at least would really put his favorite blond ninja to the test.

Just as he was thinking about this, there was a knocking at his door. He wasn't surprised when said blond came in when invited, and leaned forward as Naruto took a seat. Gesturing for him to speak, said blond sighed and decided to not beat around the bush with his leader and grandfather figure.

"Hokage-sama, I'm afraid I'm going to need your help with something. My two teammates leave a lot of things wanting. Sakura Haruno, although seems more interested in chasing our teammate than becoming a good ninja, has at least shown signs she can be helped. That I can handle on my own. What I really need your help on is dealing with the other new member of Team 7."

Naruto paused to gather his thoughts. Even though he and the hokage were close, he knew this was a delicate matter and so chose his next words carefully. "I can clearly see that Sasuke Uchiha and I will constantly be at odds with each other. He has allowed the village's worship of his clan get to his head and has proven multiple times during the test that he will not or can not work as a team player. The reason he has done this is that as he himself has stated, he strongly believes that he is superior to everyone else and does not need help. I have tried multiple times reaching out to him, but failed all but once. The second to last time, Sasuke actually put not only me and Kakashi-sensei in danger but his classmate as well. The only reason he even agreed to work with us last time was because we threatened to send him back to the academy, which if the council was not so interested in him, I would have done anyway. The boy needs a wake up call sir. And I'm afraid only a rather rude one will have any effect what so ever. However, like I said, the council has interest in him. Therefore I need your approval for me to do what I feel is necessary to open his eyes. Because if it is not done in the safety of the village walls, but outside during a mission, I cannot guarantee that the Uchiha will survive."

The hokage listened with his full attention and knew that Naruto was serious about this one hundred and ten percent. He agreed completely with him, especially about how the council was interested in the Uchiha and what that implied.

Nodding his head when Naruto had finished, Sarutobi said "I have heard your case Naruto, and I agree to it. Do what you feel is necessary to set Sasuke Uchiha on the right track. I will do my best to keep the council off your back while you take care of this problem. Just make sure not to kill him."

They both chuckled a little at that. Naruto then thanked the hokage and left the room. Unknown to the other, both had the same thought as he closed the door. 'This is going to be interesting.'

Team 7 Training Grounds The Next Day

Just as the day previous, the two rooks came to the training grounds five minutes early. What they came across astounded them. Naruto was sitting in a meditative position doing breathing exercises. This was not what shocked them though. What did was the fact that he was currently three feet of the ground and they could clearly see the wind forming a small funnel that was no bigger or smaller than Naruto himself.

Sakura thought to herself 'I've never seen such perfect chakra control before. I wonder how someone only a year older than us got that good.'

Sasuke just thought that he was doing it to show off. Sensing their presence, Naruto opened his eyes and dropped the miniature tornado underneath him. Landing lightly on his feet with his knees slightly bent.

"Glad to see both of you have a good sense of time." He said and then continued. "Today is going to be mostly about figuring out where you stand. After that, we will deal accordingly. We will skip Taijustu since I have seen you both in action. So lets start first with Ninjustu. After that, we will cover Genjustu. Then come weapon usage and finally chakra control. Once all that is done, I will figure out what our main focus will be on and how we can improve those areas that need it. Any questions?"

Sakura decided to ask a question. "Um, Naruto? I know it's not related but how did you get such good chakra control?"

Naruto just chuckled and started rubbing the back of his neck. "Shadow clones." He replied to which Sakura and Sasuke got a confused look.

Naruto explained how he had too much chakra to do the regular clone justu properly without overloading it. He then told of how when they were going over the justu at the academy how Mizuki and Iruka decided to teach him shadow clones instead. And how the clones would transfer memories including progress on chakra control back to the original once dispelled. He also explained how he had used this information to get where he was today. Sakura was still confused though.

"But Naruto. From what you said, you have gained years of knowledge. How could you do that with only one or two clones at a time?"

Naruto got a fox grin and formed his favorite hand sign. "Mass Shadow Clone Justu." He called and right after, a fog surrounded them. When it cleared, there was a sea of blond surrounding them. Seeing the shocked faces of the two rooks, Naruto dispelled the clones and explained how he had enough chakra maintain that number for a full day at least. Sakura and Sasuke were shocked that someone Naruto's age could have so much chakra to use. After that, Naruto decided to get things started.

They started with Ninjustu. Naruto was not surprised to see that Sasuke only knew fire styles. It was what the Uchihas were known for after all. Sakura unfortunately only had the three academy justus, but Naruto knew that even those came in handy to have.

After the demonstration, Naruto gave both of them a chakra card and explained how it worked. He gave one to Sasuke to see if he had more than just fire for his nature, and Sakura one to find out what hers was. It turns out Sasuke had a small affinity for Lighting as well as fire which led Naruto to believe that he had the possibility of being like Kakashi. Sakura turned out to have not only water as a primary, but earth as well.

Naruto was extremely pleased with this since because he had primarily wind, between the three they had all five elements. He knew that little tidbit would come in handy at some point or another.

Moving on to genjustu, he led them over to Kurenai's training field and asked her to perform a test for him, which she agreed to do. It turned out Sakura was a lot better at detecting and breaking genjustu than Sasuke was.

When they got back to their own training grounds, he tested them on weapons. He had them perform not only stationary tests, but moving tests as well. He would throw a shuriken or kunai across the field and the two would have to hit them with their own. Sasuke did better at this although Sakura was not far behind. After that, they came to Naruto's final and favorite test: chakra control. He showed them the kunai balancing technique and had them balance as many kunai on their fingers as possible.

Sakura again did the best by balancing kunai on each of her fingers while Sasuke could only manage seven, and that was only for about ten seconds at most. Needless to say he wasn't very happy with that fact.

After the testing was done, Naruto had the two work on their stamina since both were lacking in that department. Sasuke resented being told to do push ups and squats, especially when Naruto told him he was physically the weakest in his class, but did it when Naruto proved his point by arm wrestling him when he had his weights set to 25 percent. (In case you forgot, that makes it 250 pounds for each limb.) even with so much weight on his body, Naruto still soundly beat Sasuke. Naruto joined them, but went at a much faster pace than the two and doing at least twice as many as they were doing. It was to this scene that Kakashi came upon at noon when he came to the training grounds.

En Route To Hokage Tower

Team 7 was heading to the tower to start on some D-ranks. They had stopped at Ichiraku's to get a quick meal before continuing. It was roughly one o'clock when they reached the floor where missions were assigned. Iruka and Mizuki were currently working the desks like they usually did while the hokage was there as well. Seeing Naruto come in, the three started grinning. Naruto knew what that look meant and prepared himself to use a lot of clones today.

Stepping up to stand beside Kakashi Naruto asked "Judging by your looks Old Man, you guys must have quite a few D-ranks today." Sasuke and Sakura were shocked to hear Naruto talking to the Hokage like that.

Said old man chuckled and said "You could say that Naruto. We are really just glad that your back with us. The village just doesn't look the same without you doing all those D-ranks you used to. But now that your back, we can get a lot of stuff out of the way now. Also, a client specifically asked for you. You remember Mrs. Arien right?"

Naruto nodded. Mrs. Arien was a widow from the kyubi attack. Unlike others who had seen him as the kyubi first, Mrs. Arien saw him as a hero. She had one rather large garden in her back yard that she liked to maintain herself.

However, her arthritis would sometimes flare up and she would call in a Genin team to give her a hand. She and Naruto hit it off relatively well and Naruto learned a good deal more about gardening then he had before he met her.

"I take it her arthritis is acting up again?" He asked to which Sarutobi nodded and Iruka tossed the mission scroll to the blond.

"Anything else?" He asked. Iruka nodded and gave Naruto two more mission scrolls. Both maintenance missions. Nodding, he and Kakashi left the room and led the rooks to where they were going first.

On the way, Naruto explained to them who Mrs. Arien was and why they were helping with the gardening. Sasuke was disappointed that for at least a week or two they would only be doing these so called D-rank "missions" but kept his thoughts to himself.

When they got to Mrs. Arien's, they found her sitting down in a chair on her porch. Seeing Naruto come into her gate, she got up and gave him a hug before saying "Thanks for coming Naruto. I heard about what happened to your team. Will Matto and Heza be all right?"

Naruto nodded and said "Yeah, their all right, but they will be out of commission for a while."

The old lady nodded at this and led the team into the back yard. Sakura was amazed at how big the garden was. Turning to the client she asked "Do you really usually maintain this garden by yourself?"

Mrs. Arien chuckled and said "Yes, although when my arthritis acts up I'm afraid I have to hire a team to help. Ever since last year, I've been having Naruto come to do it. His ability to create shadow clones really helps when it comes time to weeding and transferring plants."

Naruto just rubbed the back of his neck at this and created about twenty shadow clones. He then waited as Mrs. Arien explained to the new guys what they should do and had them start weeding. Naruto left some clones with them to work on that, while ten others got started on transferring some plants into pots with fresher soil in them.

While they were doing that, the remaining two clones went with Naruto and Mrs. Arien to work on her rose garden, where they began cutting off the dead parts. Reaching into his pouch when they reached the roses, Naruto pulled out a scroll and unsealed a pair of gloves along with some clippers and a couple of garbage bags. His clones did the same, each one unsealing what they would need.

After they were ready, Naruto and Mrs. Arien got busy going through the rose bed. Mrs. Arien hung back letting Naruto do must of the work since he knew what he was doing. She would sometimes step in to pull a weed or two that had somehow managed to grow there or tell Naruto to clip a certain part of the plant.

It only took him and the clones five minutes to work through the bed of twenty roses which were lined up in two rows of ten split in the middle. Once that was done, the clones went to the ones transferring plants while the original tied up the bags with the dead roses in them and brought them to the gate of the front yard where they would be picked up by the garbage collectors.

Coming back around the house, Naruto saw that the plants were done being transferred and that the rest of the yard was pretty much weed free. Stepping up to him Mrs. Arien smiled and said "Ah, the wonders of shadow clones."

Naruto chuckled and helped the others bring their bags up to the gates. The total time the team was there was only about ten minutes. After saying good bye to Mrs. Arien, the team took off to their next assignment while Naruto had a shadow clone head to the hokage with the now finished mission scroll.

The next assignment was a rather simple one as well. All they had to do was paint a fence. What was so special about this fence was that it was a good two hundred feet long. Naruto was sure that the group at the missions desk had held onto this one especially for him to do.

Not that it really bothered him. It wasn't exactly the first time he had painted, and just like with gardening, he had actually gotten quite good at it. On the way there, he had a shadow clone go get the paint supplies from the shed where they are normally kept. The clone and team met at the fence roughly a minute apart.

Turning to Sakura and Sasuke he then explained how the best way to paint the fence was to do an outline or "cutting" (actual term.) the edges of each picket while demonstrating and then using another brush to quickly fill in the rest.

Sakura got an exasperated look. "But Naruto! That will take forever. And why did your clone only bring three cans of paint?"

Naruto just grinned and said "Sakura, Sakura, Sakura. I thought you were a quick learner."

Seeing her confused look, He grabbed a cutter's brush as well as a regular brush along with one of the three paint cans and with them in hand called out "Shadow Clone Justu." Roughly a hundred clones stood standing around them with the brushes and paint cans in hand. Looking at Sakura and Sasuke's surprised looks, Naruto continued to grin and said "Oh, the wonders of shadow clones."

He told Sakura and Sasuke to start on this side and to individually work in five foot gaps. He and his clones then left to the other side which was actually down another street that connected to this one. He knew if there were problems that Kakashi could handle them.

As he walked towards the end, he started positioning clones where they would best be placed at. He began placing them at the halfway point and gave each clone group a five foot section. When the clone group was finished with their section, they would leap frog to the next available section. With how many clones he had produced, he figured it would only take him about ten minutes to get everything done and double checked. Still grinning, he himself reached the very beginning and got started.

Back with Sakura and Sasuke, the two had both just finished their first segments and were working on the second when team 10 walked past. Ino noticed how it was just Sakura and Sasuke doing all the work and immediately thought, 'Look at her, so smug being next to Sasuke-kun. I bet she's loving every minute of it. Hey wait a minute. Where is that blond haired kid that picked them up at the academy two days ago.'

Deciding to get some answers, Ino said "Hey Sakura, you know that job's perfect for you. By the way, where's your other teammate? I thought you were supposed to do missions as a team?"

Sakura looked over her shoulder at Ino and scowled at her. "Gee thanks Ino. And for your information, Naruto is at the other end and working towards us."

Ino just raised and eyebrow as did Chouji and Shikamaru. Ino decided to try and get a rise from her. "Gee Sakura, what did you do to force your poor teammate to leave you and Sasuke-kun alone?" To which Sakura could only laugh which only got Ino mad. "What is so funny?" She asked with a vein starting to appear on her forehead.

Sakura just looked back at her one time friend before turning back around and finish working on the fence. Taking a breath before answering she said. "I didn't push Naruto any where Ino. He assigned us to start here and he and his shadow clones started on the other side. Now if you will excuse me, I really need to get this done."

Ino was about to retort to that when Asuma stepped in and told them they needed to keep going to the tower. Turning at the corner, the three Genins saw a rather unusual sight.

The fence was in an L shape with Sakura and Sasuke working on a thirty foot area. That left roughly one hundred and seventy feet for Naruto and his clones to work on. And work they had.

There were now only twenty clones and the original in the area bunched together in groups starting at the corner and ending about twenty feet from the corner. One clone would cut the picket and continue to the next one, while another clone would fill in the rest of the picket and continue as well. Finally, a third clone would come up and make sure that there were no missed spots.

Two of the clones were working with the original who was cutting heading away from the corner on the first five foot segment. Sensing Asuma's presence, he looked up from what he was doing and said "Going to start your team on missions Asuma?"

Asuma nodded and said "Yes. Although with you doing missions like this one again, I don't see what the others will be doing. Not that the other Genin squads are complaining I bet."

Naruto just chuckled while the Genin looked at the interaction going on and wonder just what was going on. Ino then had a thought. "Your name's Naruto right?"

Naruto looked back and nodded "That's right." He said, before turning back around and moving on to the next picket when he finished cutting the one he was on and moving so the clone beside him could work on it.

"Was it your idea to pair Sakura and Sasuke-kun like that back there?" Ino asked. The three males of team 10 were frowning knowing where this was going. Naruto just asked the clone who was spotting to take over which it did and turned around to look at her.

"Is there a problem?" He asked.

"Yeah there's a problem! What were you thinking putting those two together?" Ino all but shouted. To which Naruto raised an eyebrow, which only got her even more upset.

Naruto calmly unsealed one of the paint brushes that he keeps with him in case the others are being used by another team and started checking to make sure all the needles were straight. "Last time I checked, what I have my teammates do is none of your concern Yamanaka."

That did it for Ino, but before she could strangle this jerk of a blond, Naruto turned off his chakra weights and in a blur had painted every inch of the outside of the clothes the Yamanaka heir was wearing. Ino just stood there shocked as Naruto admired his handiwork for a second before making some hand signs and using his water manipulation skills, had every single drop of paint leave Ino's clothes and go back into the paint can leaving no trace it had actually happened.

Both Chouji and Shikamaru watched this and had one thought. 'That was cool.'

Naruto just looked at Ino and said. "Miss Yamanaka if that will be all, I really must be getting back to work."

At her nod, he turned around and started spotting. Asuma decided to get going and left with a wave to Naruto who returned it. The three Genin left knowing one thing. Don't mess with Naruto.

Once they were gone, Naruto finished up and went around the corner where he was pleased to find that the two rooks were almost done. Having a few of his clones help finish, he walked past the two and went to talk with Kakashi. Noticing the grin on his face, Sakura asked what was so funny, to which Naruto simply replied he had an interesting chat with team 10 and left it at that.


	12. Unlocking The Sharingan

Unlocking The Sharingan

Author's Notes: Hey guys. Since the car dealership messed up the car when they worked on it, I'm back at the dealership again so I'm going ahead and getting this out of the way since like the bell test, this one and the previous chapter pretty much goes hand in hand. Lets get started.

Hidden Leaf Village.

Team 7 had just finished painting the fence and Naruto had sent a clone to the tower like before as well as another to clean their supplies and then put them back in their storage area.

Now they were heading to a moderately sized stream just outside of the village walls. (Think of the stream they cleaned up as part of their D-ranks in the anime.)

Sakura was looking around since this was the first time she had been this way before. Sasuke was just moping at the injustice of the whole world for making have to do these pathetic excuses for 'missions' and having to do what, in his opinion, someone inferior to him told him to do. Naruto himself was wondering what he could do to get Sasuke's head out of the clouds. Kakashi was following up in the back watching the team interact, or the absence of interaction.

Roughly ten minutes after leaving the south village gates, they came upon the stream that they were supposed to clean up. The group could see some trash on the bottom of the stream.

'Well, I've seen it in worse shape.' Naruto thought to himself. Turning to the rooks he said "All right guys. This is what we are going to be doing for the rest of the day."

That being said, he unsealed a box of garbage bags as well as two baskets that had straps on them. (Again, the same they used in the anime.) He then again gave them an area to work at, by tying two ropes to trees on both sides in a fifty foot area.

Sasuke decided to be a smart aleck and asked "You don't honestly expect me to clean up another person's trash do you?"

Naruto was starting to get ticked but kept his cool. Instead he decided to return fire. "What's the matter Sasuke? I would have thought that this would be no problem for the great Uchiha. Don't tell me your afraid of getting a little wet? Or is it that you can't swim?"

Sakura got angry at this and said "Of course he can swim! Sasuke-kun can do anything!"

Naruto just snorted and said "Good. That means he should have no problem with this. Now if you will excuse me." He crossed his hands and large group of shadow clones appeared.

Turning to them he said "All right guys, you know the deal." Nodding, the half of clones on the right side each unsealed their own box of garbage bags and the clones headed off in pairs. Most went up river while a few went downstream towards the waterfall to get that area and the area beneath the falls.

Turning to the two rooks, he continued "I want this area spotless when I come back. Oh, and Sasuke, I'll be leaving a clone here so I will know if you work or not."

Not giving the emo kid a chance to reply, Naruto left and went to catch up with his clones upriver. The clones close to the ropes were already at work. One clone would be in the water picking up trash while the other clone was standing by him holding the garbage bag for him to put the trash in. The clones would all nod to Naruto as he kept heading upstream which he returned. Heading to where the end of the chain was, he took off his pants and shirt leaving him in nothing but his boxers and joined the last couple of clones. Unlike the rest of his clones who would dispel once they were done with their area and had taken their bags to the disposal area, Naruto and his group would clean an area and continue upstream.

About an half an hour later, most of the clones had finished their task and started bringing their bags to where they were supposed to take them for disposal. Sasuke and Sakura finished shortly after that and the clone watching them asked one who was on it's way to take their bags with it, which it agreed to do. It then told the two rooks to wait on the bank while the 'boss' and others finished.

While moving to the bank, Sasuke grumbled about having to listen to more than one annoying blond a day, to which the clone just manipulated the water around Sasuke's feet, causing it to knock his feet out from under him. The clone then simply told him to watch where he stepped since the bottom could be slippery in some places.

Sakura tried to help him up, but he ignored her while glaring at the clone who raised an eyebrow at the Uchiha clearly asking "What?" Kakashi from his position on a tree branch looked up from his book but just sighed and shook his head before going back to it.

It was another fifteen minutes before the original decided they had gone far enough up river and his group headed back to where his clothes were. Putting them on, he and his group headed back.

When the clone who was assigned to watch the two saw him, it dispelled itself and Naruto got it's memories, including what happened fifteen minutes ago. Shaking his while softly chuckling at what had happened, he walked over and said "All done here?" Sasuke just glared at him while Sakura simply nodded to him. Nodding he led the group back to the tower.

Back at the tower, the group got their pay for the missions, and Naruto told the rooks to be at the training grounds at 7 the next day and then dismissed them to do what they wanted to. He sighed to himself when the door closed after them, which his leader and former teachers noticed.

"You all right Naruto?" Mizuki asked noticing that Naruto was a little high strung up.

Naruto just turned around and nodded. "Yeah. It's just that dealing with that Uchiha can be a real pain sometimes."

The two teachers nodded knowing exactly what the blond was talking about. The old man just watched before asking the question the whole group was wondering. "Do you think you can help them Naruto?"

Naruto sighed again and said "I will do my best old man, but it is really up to them. Sakura I can see wanting some help, but the Uchiha will most likely be too stubborn to take what I give him at face value."

Nodding at this, the hokage then asked Naruto to do the best he could to which he nodded and was then dismissed. Turning to Kakashi he asked "I hope there weren't too many problems today." To which Kakashi just shrugged and said "Went about as well as expected sir." The hokage nodded again and dismissed Kakashi as well.

When Kakashi came out, Naruto was waiting for him and the two went to get their pay before heading out to grab a quick bite to eat while Naruto told Kakashi about the tests he had the two rooks do to get an idea of what they could really do and how to help. They then discussed what Naruto should do to help the two before heading to their training grounds and started training themselves.

Team 7 Training Grounds: The Next Day

Sakura and Sasuke showed up to what was to them, and unusual sight of seeing two virtual armies doing battle with each other in a straight Taijustu battle. Now normally this wouldn't have been to strange to them since they had seen that Naruto could create a lot of clones. However, the clones were moving at such a speed that it looked more like a bunch of blurs moving at high speed with the occasional poof of smoke than an actual battle.

Naruto himself was currently doing sit ups facing his clones while they had their little Taijustu war game. Noticing the two rooks when he was in the down position, Naruto sat up and whistled. Hearing the whistle, the clones that were still fighting stopped and dispelled themselves.

Standing up after absorbing the clones' memories, Naruto turned to the rooks and said "Me and Kakashi-sensei decided that it would be best if we started you off with a warm up routine before we start training each day. Starting today, you will be doing a set number of push ups, sit ups, jumping jacks, and laps around this clearing. After that, we will work on whatever I decide for the day. Is that understood?" The two rooks nodded and the three got started.

After they were done with the warm up, Naruto led them to where the tallest trees in the training ground were and said "All right. I've decided to mainly work on your chakra control this week. To begin with I am going to teach you to climb trees."

He paused knowing what was going to come next. And he was not disappointed.

"Climb trees? We already know how to climb trees dobe. We could do that since we were five."

Naruto looked at the Uchiha and a grin appeared on his face. 'Time to really start putting him in his place.' "Maybe with your hands Uchiha, but can you do it with only your feet?"

Seeing the confused looks on the two's faces, he then walked up to a tree and placed a foot on the trunk. He the proceeded to walk up the tree and underneath a branch about twenty feet off the ground and stopped facing the two with a grin still on his face and said "You got a long way to go Sasuke. I learned how to do this when they taught us how to make clones in the academy, and my two teammates were right behind me when I showed them. They only took half a day to get it down. I'm betting it takes you at least a week."

Sakura was just surprised and amazed that you could actually do that using chakra while Sasuke was just mad.

"Oh yeah dobe? Well I'll have that down by the end of the hour." (Big words coming from someone with the worst chakra control on the team.)

Naruto frowned at the Uchiha at the dobe comment but let it slide since he knew that he could kick the Uchiha's ass whenever he wanted too, and explained how you had to focus chakra to the soles of your feet and how you had to have the exact amount or else you will either slip off the tree or blast off it. He also said it would be best if they started at a run. Taking a couple of kunai from his pouch, he tossed them into the ground in front of the two and told them to use them to mark their progress.

Sasuke took the kunai thinking to himself that he would show the dobe just what he could do while Sakura was looking at the tree with determination. They took off for separate trees next to each other and started running up. Sasuke got about seven steps up before he suddenly felt the bark give. He quickly marked his spot before the bark exploded and he was pushed off the tree. Flipping, he landed on the ground and took a look at the tree. He smirked thinking that he did fairly well for the first time.

Naruto just watched and shook his head. He had seen how duck head had done but had also seen Sakura to the exercise and knew just how to get Sasuke's head back down to earth.

"Not bad Sasuke." (Sasuke got a smug look.) "But are you sure you are a Uchiha? I thought that you guys were supposed to be the best?" With that, Naruto pointed at Sakura who was currently sitting on a branch at the same level of Naruto's with a grin on her face, pleased with herself.

Seeing Sasuke's face, Naruto got a grin and said "You know Sasuke, it's kind of sad. At the rate she's going, Sakura here well have this down within an hour, where as you will probably still be doing this for at least a couple of more days, if not the rest of the week."

Sakura felt proud that Naruto had that much faith in her but frowned when she heard what the blond said to Sasuke. Said emo glared at Naruto before giving the tree another go.

Chuckling to himself, Naruto thought 'Well that got him motivated.' He then noticed two people enter the area they were in that he was very happy to see. Grinning to himself, he dropped to the ground flipping to land on his feet. He told the two to keep at it and created a shadow clone to watch their progress while he himself went to talk to the two waiting a short distance away. Sakura and Sasuke noticed where he was headed and wondered who he was going to meet, but had no time to think about it since the clone told them to get back to work.

A pair of brown eyes another of dark blue met his own light blue as he walked up to his former teammates.

"They finally let you out huh?" Naruto asked while hugging his friends.

Matto nodded and said "Yeah. And let me tell you, that physical rehab was a huge bore fest."

Naruto and Heza chuckled with him while Naruto asked what had been on his mind for the past two weeks. "So how long until you two can be back in action? It can't be too long if your already walking again."

The two looked at each other before sighing and Heza answered. "We may be walking Naruto, but it well still be a while. We only just finished rehab this morning, and that was just for getting our bodies to do everyday things and walking. It'll be another month at least before we can do anything strenuous, and even longer to get our chakra abilities back to regular Genin levels. I'm afraid we wont be back to where we were before for the whole year like the doctors thought."

Naruto frowned upon hearing this. He was really hoping his friends would make a faster recovery. Although it was good to hear that we would be able to start training again in a couple of months at least, the thought of having to work for so long to get back to where they were was killing him inside. He could only imagine what those two were going through.

Noticing the look and knowing what his friend was thinking, Matto said "Cheer up Naruto, it could have been a lot worse. Besides, now we've got plenty of time to do what we want to. I've made amazing progress with sealing now that I don't have to do any missions or anything like that." Naruto frowned, since in his opinion, his friend was just fine at sealing and that it wasn't really a good thing that he felt he needed to be injured like he had to get better at it.

Heza also recognizing her friend's look and thinking that her other friend's way of relieving the stress wasn't exactly the best way to do so decided to change the topic. "So how are the new guys? Are they any good?"

Naruto just laughed at that and said "Are you kidding me? How they ever made it out of the academy is beyond me. Sasuke Uchiha has a superiority complex and believes that whatever I can do, he can do better. Never mind the fact that he's got a problem with working with others, he can't get it through his thick skull that there are others his age that are better than him. He's worse than Neji. At least he had a reason to be so cocky, but this guy must have used his name to get through and get the title rookie of the year. That's the only way he could have possibly passed this year. Sakura Haruno is just as bad. She's a fan girl of the Uchiha. (At this, the two winced knowing how Naruto hated fan girls.) The only thing she's got going for her are book smarts and extremely good chakra control. Other than that she's got nothing. The only thing that doesn't make her worse than the Uchiha in my book is that she seems to be willing to listen to what I tell them. The Uchiha couldn't give a rat's rear end about what I say."

Matto and Heza looked at each other again and then turned back to Naruto. "Well at least you've got Kakashi-sensei as a teacher. Imagine if you had to get a new one that idolized the Uchiha." Matto said and Naruto immediately paled at that thought while picturing it. Looking Matto in the eye, he calmly said "Don't even joke about that."

The two then moved on to talking about how the D-ranks went with the new guys. Both Heza and Matto burst out laughing when they heard what Naruto did to Ino when she confronted him about putting Sakura and "her Sasuke-kun" together while painting the fence and laughing again at what the clone did to Sasuke at the end of the cleanup mission.

Afterwards, they talked about the rehab and what the two were doing in between sessions. After a while they stopped talking and the two left to go do their own things. Heading back to his charges, he was pleasantly surprised to se that Sakura had in fact made it to the top in the time that he and his friends were talking. She was currently resting on a tree branch close to the top panting a little. Looking down, he noticed that while Sasuke had made progress, it was nowhere near what Sakura had did. The Uchiha was probably a quarter of the way up the tree, and he was currently glaring at the tree as if he would like nothing better than blast it with a fireball justu. Shaking his head, he dispelled the clone he had watching the two and walked over to the Uchiha.

"Need help?" He asked, even though he knew from the clone's memories that the kid would refuse. He felt that the kid just 'might' have a different reaction if it was the original asking. Unfortunately, Sasuke still refused and Naruto just shrugged thinking it was no skin on his back if it took the kid a little while to get over his pride.

He and Kakashi had planned on spending most of the week working on this after all. Noticing Sakura looking down at him with a proud smile on her face, he grinned up at her and jumped up the tree using the branches as steps. Landing next to her, he handed her a canteen that he had brought with him and told her to have a drink, which Sakura gladly did.

"Good job Sakura." He said. At Sakura's nod of thanks he continued. "After your done resting, I want you to try and walk up the tree next. Do it until you can get up and down twice without resting. This will not only help improve your control, it will also help you expand your chakra reserves. If you finish today, I'll show you the next step." At this Sakura nodded and returned Naruto's canteen and laid back down. About five minutes after Naruto went back down, she followed and started again, this time trying to walk up the tree.

It was roughly eleven o'clock when Naruto called an end to the exercise. Sakura was able to walk up and down the tree once before she needed a rest and Sasuke was now just over half way up the tree.

Coming back down, Sakura asked why they were stopping so early. Naruto told her that there was no point pushing themselves to hard and that they would continue where they stopped tomorrow morning.

He then told them that he was going to take them to lunch before they got started on the three D-ranks for the day. Sakura nodded at this and when the reached the first clearing at the entrance to the training grounds decided to ask what was on her mind at the moment.

"Naruto who were those two you were talking to? You seemed to know them real well."

Naruto nodded and said "My former teammates. They just got out of normal rehab today and are going to start ninja rehab tomorrow."

"Oh I see." Sakura said and then grew quiet thinking that it should have been fairly obvious to her considering what she had seen before.

Sasuke snorted and said "If they were your teammates then no wonder they got hurt so badly."

Naruto instantly stopped and turned around to face the Uchiha. "Care to repeat that rook?" He said in a dangerous tone of voice causing Sakura to take a step back. In the seal, Kyubi lifted his head from the nap he had been taking when he felt his son's anger start to rise. **'That Uchiha just crossed the line.'** he thought as he watched to see what his son would do.

Sasuke just looked at Naruto calmly with a small smirk on his face and said "You heard me. I said that it was no wonder they got hurt so badly."

Naruto stepped right into Sasuke's face and said in a level tone. "Talk about my friends that way one more time like that teme and I will personally help you achieve all three levels of your Sharingan. Matto and Heza were easily ten times better than you were. I seriously doubt you could have survived what they did on that mission."

Turning around, he started walking away. Sasuke got angry at the statement about those two being better than he was and against what most would consider common sense said. "They couldn't be that strong if they ended up in the hospital. Are you sure that Kakashi-sensei didn't just save all three of your pathetic rear ends on this mission where you got so called bad intel?"

Sakura got wide eyes while father and son shared one thought. 'That does it. He is so dead.' Turning around, Sasuke caught a glimpse of Naruto's eyes flicking once for a split second from blue to red before Naruto cried out "Alright, that does it!" and launched himself at Sasuke.

There was so much killer's intent that Sasuke's Sharingan immediately activated to level one. Not that it did any good as Naruto used his speed and strength to turn Sasuke into a punching bag made of meat. Ten seconds in, Sasuke's Sharingan went to level two while he desperately tried to avoid Naruto's punches while Naruto came at him even faster when he saw it happen. Ten seconds after that, the Sharingan went to the third and final level (Not many Uchihas get the Mangeyko after all.) It didn't do one bit of good however since Naruto went even faster and kept pounding away at the Uchiha heir for another minute before stopping. When he was done, Sasuke had broken bones in both of his arms and one broken leg. He was also covered in bruises with a black eye as well as a broken nose.

Naruto stood over the broken Uchiha glaring down at him while he got his breathing under control, not from exertion, but from anger.

Turning to Sakura who had watched the whole thing with wide eyes he calmed himself down and said "Sakura please take Uchiha to the hospital to be treated. After that, you are dismissed. We will not be doing missions for the day. Please be back here tomorrow morning at 7."

Sakura nodded and as she was bending down to help Sasuke, he looked back at him and said "Well Uchiha, I hope you learned your lesson." Ignoring the glare given to him, Naruto turned and started walking thinking to himself that he didn't care what the council said, that had felt damn good giving the Uchiha what he deserved. His father could only agree. Kakashi who had watched the entire scene from a nearby tree and could only be glad that Naruto had stuck to Taijustu alone and that he hadn't killed the poor fool of a genius.

The hokage had been watching using his crystal ball and frowned knowing that there would be hell with the council for this but knew that the Uchiha had brought this upon him self.

It wasn't long after lunch when Naruto was called to appear before the council. Standing outside, he steeled himself to deal with a council made mostly out of complete idiots, especially the civilians. Taking a deep breath, he then opened the doors and entered the chamber stopping in front of where the council was seated and said "You wished to speak to me?"

Almost the entire council was glaring at the blond except for a couple of the clan heads, especially Hiashi Hyuga who was glad to see the so called mighty Uchiha humiliated. The council had heard what had happened and some of the clan heads found it not only fitting that the Uchiha be shown his place, but funny as well.

One council member glared even harder at the blond at the tone of voice he took and said "Don't take that tone with us demon! Do you have any idea how much trouble you are in? How dare you send your teammate to the hospital? We should have you stripped of your shinobi status for this!" Other members nodded while others, mainly the Hyugas and the old Ino-Shika-Chou group rolled their eyes at this declaration.

Naruto raised an eyebrow at this and said "Really? I would've thought the council would have been glad that I had helped their precious Uchiha unlock his Sharingan."

At this, the council members who were glaring at them started to unleash killer's intent at how he acted towards him. He just looked at them all for a second. Shrugging to himself, he decided to show that they didn't scare him.

It wasn't ki or bloodlust he pulsed at the council, it was the sense of sheer power, telling the council that compared to him, their ki was like a kitten next to a tiger. Most of the council gasped at the power they felt coming from him for that brief moment while the rest raised an eyebrow or even grinned.

A moderate council member decided to prevent a fight while she still could and spoke up. "Uzumaki, while I agree that according to testimony by your teacher that the Uchiha stepped out of line, it would have been better if you handled the situation a little more delicately. Although I will admit that it is good to know that the last Uchiha has now unlocked his Sharingan, the method used to do so is generally frowned upon. That being said, please try to withhold any such actions in the future whenever possible."

"**Smooth talker that one. Did you notice how she acknowledged both sides without saying either side was completely right?"** Kyubi asked his son who mentally nodded.

The council members calmed down a little at this when Naruto nodded saying he understood before asking if there was anything else the council needed from him. Knowing that Naruto had the approval of the hokage to do whatever he felt was necessary to deal with the Uchiha, the council dismissed him since they knew they really couldn't do anything to him but give him a warning.

Naruto walked out while thinking to himself 'Well that went well.' His father only snorted before agreeing with him and going back to sleep.

The medics at the hospital were able to fully heal Sasuke so he was able to show up at the training grounds in the morning with Sakura.

After the warm up routine, they started working on the chakra control exercise where they had left off the previous day. Sasuke was decidedly frosty when dealing with Naruto but did what he was told and avoided any conflicts. Naruto had just shaken his head and gave advice where needed while working on his own exercises.

By the time the morning was over, Sakura could walk up and down the tree twice without having to rest and Sasuke was almost to the top.

They went to get their three D-ranks for the day and completed them without incident. After getting their pay, Kakashi and Naruto dismissed the rooks and left for their training grounds for some one on one training.


	13. More Than One Way To Skin A Cat

More Than One Way To Skin A Cat.

Author's Notes: Hey guys, just though I would give you a quick heads up about something one of my reviewers said. Sasuke now has the Sharingan so I'm sure you guys think that he's suddenly going to get all strong and all. Nope. I'm having Naruto stick to high speed and elemental manipulation around him when he knows the Sharingan might be active. Also, there is going to be a slight time jump here so that way the story can really get moving. That being said, let's get started.

Team 7 Training Grounds

It was the fourth day of the new Team 7's training and Naruto decided to go ahead and start working a little on Ninjustu and Taijustu.

First order of the day was Taijustu with Naruto going over different strengths and weaknesses of the rather large collection of styles he knew about. After he explained what to look for in ways of getting past a style, he then created a couple of shadow clones and had Sasuke and Sakura fight them while the clones would use the different styles he had explained. To make things fair and keep him from growing to dependant on it, Naruto had Sasuke not use his Sharingan for this exercise, much to the emo kid's displeasure.

After fifteen minutes of watching the two and seeing what they were doing right and wrong, Naruto called a stop to the spars and dispelled one of the clones while ordering the other to help Sasuke fill in the gaps of his Taijustu skills since his Interceptor Fist style relied to much on the Sharingan in his opinion. The original left with Sakura to another clearing and started working with her. He started drilling fighting moves into her like a drill sergeant teaching her everything from grappling to different types of attacks used while dropping in on an opponent. While he was doing this, he recommended her to get a set of weights to not only increase her strength but also her speed as well and offered to go with her after missions were over for the day to get some, which she agreed to.

An hour before lunch, the two groups met back together at the main clearing and Naruto started teaching Ninjustu. He started of with a couple of basic survival justus such as a water condensation trick to refill cantinas when there wasn't a ready water supply and others that came in handy when hiding traces of a camp. He explained what each justu did and it's importance to know. Sakura took to it like a sponge while Sasuke just scoffed and claimed that they were below him.

Naruto got a tick over his right eye when he heard this before a gleam came to his eyes and he started smiling evilly.

Sakura, who had heard rumors over the last couple of days about her veteran teammate, which she picked up whenever she heard his name now that she had a face to go with it, saw the look and took a few quick steps back.

Sasuke, who had also heard the rumors but didn't pay them much mind just looked at Naruto silently daring him to try something.

Naruto's grin got particularly nasty before his hands flew in a rapid sequence of hand signs. Right after he finished, the air condensed around Sasuke and what looked like five gallons of water suddenly dropped on the kid's head, completely drenching him from head to toe.

Inside his mind, Naruto could hear his father bursting out in laughter, most likely causing internal damage rupturing his spleen from laughing so hard.

Sakura just stared for a second before getting angry and demanding why Naruto had done that.

Naruto simply raised an eyebrow and replied that if he could use that simple of a justu to make that much water, than it would be easy to use water justus anywhere, even to an extent in a desert, so that justu really should be learned. Sakura realized where he was getting at and so became quiet again while Sasuke just fumed at Naruto while he gave a Cheshire cat's grin at him.

Moving on from there, he gave Sakura a few more basic water justus and showed Sasuke a few lightning style justus as well figuring that the kid probably didn't know as many as those as he did fire style justus.

It was this scene that Kakashi, Gai, and Lee showed up to watch around lunch time. When the two rooks noticed the matching sensei/student duo, they immediately made the mistake of asking who they were.

After a bit embarrassing introduction, Lee turned to Naruto and said "Yosh! Naruto are you ready to have our youthful weekly spar?"

Sasuke and Sakura just stared at the kid while Naruto grinned like the fox he had in him.

"You sure you are for this Lee? I increased my weights again by another hundred pounds total. You might not be able to keep up."

Lee just grinned and said "That is a most youthful thing for you to do Naruto. But I have also increased my weights this week!"

Naruto grinned thinking that the two rooks would be in for one hell of a show.

Now Sakura and Sasuke were watching this, and both had different thoughts going through their heads.

'Those two guys are really weird. I can't believe Naruto and Kakashi-sensei would even think about talking to them.' Sakura thought to herself while shuddering a little at the sight of all of that green Spandex.

Sasuke had different thoughts. 'Maybe now I can use my Sharingan and actually get something out of these lessons.'

Naruto and Kakashi knew that Sasuke would try to copy what he could, so the two had met up with Gai and Lee the night before and explained that they didn't want Sasuke taking the easy way, to which both beasts agreed. Therefore, it was no surprise to Lee when Naruto looked him straight in the eye and said three words. "Take them off."

Lee nodded and reached into his leg warmers and pulled out the weights. Grinning, he dropped them and they created small craters in the ground making the two rooks' eyes bulge out. Naruto, also grinning, disengaged his chakra weights leaving him feeling like he was lighter than air. Nodding to each other, the two immediately went at it while their teachers quickly followed. The group of four were moving too fast to be anything more than blurs even for the Sharingan, much to Sasuke's shock and annoyance. All around the two rookies, blasts of air and small craters started appearing as the four gave it their all in a rare all out Taijustu two on two battle royal.

The fight went on for a good two and a half hours until the four stopped fighting, all four breathing heavily. Surrounding everyone were craters all over the place, some still smoking.

Gai turned to Kakashi and said "Well Kakashi, my eternal rival, that was a most youthful display of skill from you and your student! I look forward to our next match!"

Kakashi nodded and said "That was a good one. Thank you and Lee for agreeing to this type of match this time."

Gai just struck his nice guy pose and said "Of course! Anything to show these youthful new students of yours what they can achieve with hard work."

Said students sweat dropped at being called "youthful" but didn't say anything.

In the meantime Naruto and Lee were a few feet away and having their own conversation.

"That was a good combo you did at the end Lee." Naruto said while swiping his brow with his forearm.

Lee just nodded and said "Thank you Naruto, you also had some good combos. And by the way, good luck with training your new teammates."

Naruto nodded and said "Thanks Lee, I know I'm going to need it."

At that point Gai called to Lee and the two took off leaving a smoke trail behind. Naruto shook his head and headed over to where his teammates were and said to Kakashi "That took way too long. We'll probably only have time to do one team mission today since we haven't even had lunch yet." As if to agree with him, Sakura and Sasuke's stomachs chose that moment to growl, embarrassing the two.

Kakashi nodded and said "Your right, though I got to admit that was a really good workout."

Sakura and Sasuke sweat dropped when they heard that that war they had just witnessed was simply a workout. Naruto grinned while nodding his head knowing that Kakashi was messing with the rookies' heads and the group left to get lunch and then a mission.

One Month Later, Forest Just Outside Of The Hidden Leaf Village

Naruto had his back against a tree, looking around it. 'About time we got this mission.' Naruto thought to himself before shrugging. 'I guess the hokage wanted to break in the new guys without vets on their team first. Makes sense, since we will probably be doing this most of the time again.' Naruto was brought out of his thoughts when he heard his sensei's voice from his radio.

"Team, this is leader, what is your status? Over."

"Gold in position." Naruto said.

"Onyx in position." Came the bored reply from one of his teammates.

"Pink in position." Came his other teammate's voice.

"Very well then team. Engage." Came Kakashi's voice again and Naruto turned around the tree and jumped to a branch in a nearby tree and watched the show.

Sasuke and Sakura had launched themselves at a dark shape on the forest floor which turned when it heard it coming after them. Hissing, it jumped straight up in the air causing Sasuke to land on his face on the ground. Sakura actually rolled when she landed so that she ended up on her feet and looked around trying to spot the animal now identified as a cat.

Sasuke got up and quickly spotted the cat from hell and growling, chased after it.

Naruto was laughing his butt off while he followed watching as Sasuke and Sakura rushed after the cat for about five minutes before the cat suddenly turned around and launched itself at Sasuke starting to scratch and bite all over the place beginning where the sun don't shine. After a few minutes, Naruto decided that Sasuke had suffered enough and dropped down to the group.

He then called out "Tora!" while shaking a small cat toy filled with catnip. The now identified cat broke off its rampage on Sasuke and quickly leapt into Naruto's arms and begin purring when he started scratching the cat behind his ears. Sasuke got up off the ground covered in scratches while glaring at the cat. He then sent his glare at Naruto who raised his eyebrow, clearly asking nonverbally "What?"

Sasuke got even angrier and said "Don't look at me like that! Why the hell didn't you step in sooner if you could catch it that simple?"

Naruto just grinned and said "Because you would never learn that way Sasuke. You got to learn that there is more than one way to skin a cat. Or in this case, catch one. Now come on."

With that said, Naruto turned around and led the group back into the village with Tora in his hands still purring while Sakura was trying to get Sasuke to let her put some ointment on him. Kakashi joined them from where he had been waiting and chuckled under his breath at Sasuke's condition earning him a glare from the last Uchiha.

Back at the tower, Naruto was shaking his head when Tora jumped into the Fire Daimyo's wife's arms and started purring again while she petted him.

'I still find it hard to believe she trained that little guy for attacking any poor Genin who got assigned the job of finding him every once in a while when he runs off. Definitely a good substitute for training for a situation of being attacked in enemy territory.' He thought while watching them leave. (I am convinced that in the manga and anime the wife did that to the cat on purpose to train rookies. I just made it more believable in my fic.)

Watching the Daimyo's wife leave the room, Sarutobi turned to the group and said, "Well done Team 7. Now then, for the next mission, we have cleaning out the Inuzka's kennels, babysitting for a council member, or cleaning up one of the rivers in the training grounds."

Naruto and Kakashi noticed the look on Sasuke's face and both mentally counted down 'five, four, three, two, one.'

"No!" Sasuke said clenching his fist.

Sakura looked at Sasuke in shock while Sarutobi, Mizuki, and Iruka looked up from the tables they were at and Sarutobi asked "Something the matter Sasuke?"

Sasuke stood there glaring at the hokage and said "These tasks are beneath me. I want something more challenging."

Shaking his head, Naruto and his father had one of those moments where they thought the same thing. 'Idiot.' Sighing Naruto turned to his teammate and said "Sasuke, if these missions are beneath you then why do you look like you just came out of blender?"

Sasuke glared at Naruto but before he came up with a reply, the hokage addressed the blond. "Naruto." When he saw that he had his grandson in all but title and blood's attention, he continued. "You have been on more missions than either of your teammates. You have also mainly been the one training these two. Knowing what you do about what these missions usually entail, do you believe they are ready for a low C-rank?"

Closing his eyes for a minute, Naruto had a short conversation with his father getting his opinion while the two went over what they knew. Opening his eyes, Naruto gave a small nod and said "If it really is a low level C-rank mission, they should be able to handle it without too much trouble. And if not, Kakashi-sensei and I can pull them out."

Sasuke got a glare but once again, before he could say anything, the old man nodded and said "Very well Naruto, I will trust your judgment on this." Seeing Naruto nod, he continued "Iruka please pass over the C-ranks."

Iruka nodded. While he was concerned about Sakura and Sasuke going on a C-rank so soon, He knew Naruto and Kakashi could handle anything that came their way.

Handing over the mission folder, Iruka then sat down while sharing a look with Mizuki that clearly said "This is going to be interesting when he gets back."

Mizuki grinned and nodded knowing what his friend had said. Naruto meanwhile, had caught Iruka's look and Mizuki's following nod and slightly grinned as well.

Sarutobi looked through the folder while this was going on and stopped at what he thought would be the perfect mission. Looking up he said "Your mission should you choose to accept it (I know, too much like Mission Impossible, but I saw the second one and it was really good.) is to escort a bridge builder from the land of waves by the name of Tazuna back home so that he can finish his bridge while guarding him until he completes it. You can expect a few bandit attacks but nothing else. Do you accept?"

Naruto and Kakashi both saw Sasuke's look at them and decided to humor him. Both nodded and Kakashi stepped up to the desk and looked at the mission details while Sarutobi asked for the client to be brought in.

Naruto heard the door open and turned around to see an older guy with a bottle of sake in his hands who had a bit of a drunk smell to his sensitive nose.

Looking at the man, Naruto realized that while this guy's body language to most people would look relaxed, the guy was definitely tense for some reason.

Taking a quick swig from his bottle while he looked at the team, Tazuna snorted and said "This is the team that is supposed to be protecting me? They're just a bunch of kids. How am I supposed to know if they won't abandon me at the first sign of trouble. Especially the blond brat." (uh-oh. Cue thunder clouds rolling in. lol)

Now a normal person hearing this might have gotten angry at that remark, and maybe in another life Naruto would have, but he just got a grin on his face before moving at a speed the civi couldn't keep up with and had a kunai to the client's neck with the ring touching the man's Adam's apple while he himself held the blade in a firm but light grip with his thumb on one side and his fingers in a fist on the other.

Not once losing his grin, Naruto said "One of the first rules about dealing with a ninja: never underestimate us." Tazuna just nodded while Naruto pocketed his kunai and went to stand next to his teacher.

Mizuki chuckled a little while Iruka, Sarutobi, and Kakashi just rolled their eyes a little about how Naruto had gotten his point across.

Turning to the scroll, Kakashi said, "All right team, this looks like the mission will take a few weeks to complete, so I want you to go home and pack for a long term mission. We will meet at the main gate in one hour. Dismissed."

With that, the team split up and got ready for their mission.

As he was going through the door, Naruto took a quick look at Tazuna and thought 'I just know things are going to get pretty interesting.'


	14. Shock and Awe

Shock and Awe

Hidden Leaf Village Gate

Kakashi, Sakura, Sasuke and their client were waiting at the gate for Naruto to show up with five minutes to spare. Naruto walked up with a particular expression on his face. When Kakashi raised his eyebrow at him though, Naruto just gave a look that clearly said "I know something you don't."

"Do I even want to know what you did as a farewell gift for this village?" Kakashi asked chuckling.

Naruto's grin just got even wider while Sasuke and Sakura could only look in confusion.

Five minutes out the gate, they suddenly heard "NARUTOOOOOOO!"

Sakura and Sasuke flinched at the anger they could hear in that scream and how loud it was.

Kakashi just sighed while rolling his eye and turned to Naruto. "Ok, what did you do?"

Naruto burst into laughter and then said "I had a little run in with the Yamanaka heir on the way here. She wasn't really polite so I stuck a small explosive note on her back that would cover her in paint once I got far enough out of the village."

Kakashi just looked at him while Sakura burst out laughing while Sasuke wondered if this was the same guy who constantly was pushing him past his limits. Tazuna was wondering what he had gotten himself into but remained quiet. The rest of the day passed on quietly and they set up camp for the night.

The next day, the group was traveling in standard diamond formation with Naruto at point and Sakura and Sasuke flanking at right and left respectively, with Kakashi in the back.

Shortly after lunch time, Naruto noticed a puddle further along the road they were taking. Both he and his father noticed and both came to the same conclusion: ambush.

Naruto, seeing that Kakashi hadn't made a move yet, decided to better position himself as they began to pass the puddle. "Hey Sasuke, lets switch."

Sasuke didn't understand why they were changing formation but did so any way. While they were switching places, Naruto was debating with himself whether or not he should disengage his weights. He could both smell and sense by the chakra that their was two people waiting for the ambush but he could tell that they were chunnin level. Deciding that since he could disengage his weights at a rapid speed he would hold out on that. Turns out there wouldn't be a need.

Kakashi had taken five steps away from the puddle when two figures started to rise from it. As soon as they were completely out, they started to run towards Kakashi with a chain between them. Started being the key word because as one Kakashi and Naruto turned around and blurred behind the pair knocking the two nins out.

Kakashi looked to Tazuna and his gaze hardened as he said "I thought you said the most we could expect was bandits Tazuna. We'll talk in a minute." Turning to Naruto he said "Naruto if you would do the honors."

Naruto nodded and walked around to where one of their attackers' head was and kneeled down. While he was performing a few hand signs, Naruto thought to himself 'Those mental justus I found at the shinobi library sure come in handy.'

Naruto found himself in the ninja's mindscape and proceeded to look through the memories. He was surprised at what he learned and left to report what he found.

Outside, Sakura and Sasuke were wondering just what their teammate was doing when Naruto took a deep breath and stood back up. Turning to Kakashi, he jerked his head to the forest and Kakashi nodded. Turning to the rooks, Kakashi said "Stay here and keep an eye out, we'll be right back." He then proceeded to follow Naruto a short distance away.

Naruto decided to get right to the point, "I thought something was off back at the old man's office and it looks like I was right. Those two ninjas are known as the demon brothers. They work for a missing mist nin named Zabuza Momochi, one of the Seven Swordsman, or as we know him the demon of the mist. He was hired to take out the bridge builder by a man named Gato. I can only assume it is the same Gato of Gato Shipping Industries."

Kakashi's eyebrow raised but noticed that Naruto had more to say. "Kakashi-sensei, I saw something that really disturbs me. That guy had been in Tazuna's home town just recently. The whole town is in shambles. It looks like everyone is dirt poor and it is only getting worse. It is obvious to me that the bridge the old man is working on is the last remaining hope these people have. I know you and I might have trouble with Zabuza but I really want to help these people."

Kakashi looked into his student's eyes and saw the determination there and knew that Naruto would continue even if the rest of the team went back. Sighing to himself, Kakashi nodded and said "Very well Naruto, you and I will continue. But we have to inform Sakura and Sasuke of the danger and ask if they wish to carry on. If not, you can summon a shadow clone and have it escort them back to the village."

Naruto nodded and the two went back to the others. Went they got back Kakashi looked at Tazuna and said "Start talking."

Tazuna gulped and started to explain about how Wave used to be a prosperous place before Gato came. How the man was sucking them dry. How the bridge was his people's last hope and how Gato would stop at nothing to see it never be finished.

While this was going on, Naruto was watching the two rooks' body language to see how they would turn. He noticed that both took on a look of determination towards the end and nodded to himself. He knew their answers.

Kakashi just to be formal told Tazuna that he and Naruto would be staying, much to the old man's relief, but that when wave was back on it's feet it would have to pay the rest of the cost.

Turning to the two new guys, he then asked if they wanted to continue with them or if they wanted Naruto to create a shadow clone to escort them both back to the village.

Both declined the offer and opted to stay as well. With that out of the way, the group continued towards Wave.

They were about five miles from the old man's house when they were attacked again. They had just gotten off of a boat piloted by a friend of the bridge builder five minutes ago and were walking down the path.

All of a sudden the wind changed just enough for Naruto to catch a heavy scent of metal nearby while he was breathing through his nose to check the wind. Naruto's eyes widened. That scent had told him there was enough metal for a small armory, or a very BIG sword.

Naruto, without breaking stride, disengaged his chakra weights and went on extra alert. All of a sudden he felt the smallest slivers of a chakra presence a short distance away. Acting on pure instinct, Naruto's hand blurred as it grabbed a kunai and launched it into the bushes.

Sasuke and Sakura jumped at the sound and looked at him while Kakashi tensed and also went to a higher alert status. Naruto visibly relaxed as a white rabbit ran out of the bushes scared out of its mind.

While Sakura started badgering Naruto about harming bunnies and Sasuke was snorting at what the blond did, both Kakashi and Naruto eyed the rabbit while they had the same thought 'White fur during the summer? That means…'

"Get Down!" Naruto and Kakashi shouted at the same time as the two heard the sound of a sword spinning its way in the air towards them. Kakashi grabbed Tazuna while Sasuke grabbed Sakura on their way down.

Naruto took a different approach, turning as he jumped not down, but up over the blade while throwing a kunai along the line the blade had made. He figured it wouldn't do much but that it might catch the guy off guard anyway. As the blade passed under him, he completed his spin and landed in a crouch with one knee on the ground and looking at where the blade had dug itself into a tree. There he saw someone who he had really hoped he wouldn't be meeting. One Zabuza Momochi.

Zabuza looked down at him and said "Not bad kid. That was pretty impressive thing you just did, but it's not enough when facing me." He then looked at Kakashi and said "Well now isn't this an honor. Kakashi of the Sharingan."

'Sharingan?' Sasuke thought. 'Is he a Uchiha?' But before he could ask, Zabuza started talking again.

"While I would love to stay and chat Kakashi, I have a job to do so why don't you hand over the bridge builder and we ca-"

He never got to finish the sentence as Naruto appeared right behind him with his right foot parallel to the sword at the same level as Zabuza's head as Naruto spun in the air and knocked him out of the tree and he slammed into the trunk of another.

Sasuke and Sakura were amazed. They didn't even see their teammate move. One instant he was right beside them, the next he had been right behind the big guy with his foot already putting a dent in the guy's skull.

Naruto landed on the sword his opponent had been standing on in a crouch and stood up looking at the bare-chested guy as he slowly got up, turned and glared at the blond.

Naruto could practically taste the KI coming from the "Demon of the Mist." Sasuke and Sakura stiffened while Kakashi tensed ready to step in if needed.

Naruto though had other thoughts. 'Blitz or Barbi?' He thought to his father.

"**He's a water user. Blitzkrieg the guy's ass."** Kyubi said through their link .

Naruto nodded and thought back 'Yeah that's what I thought as well.'

Naruto then used his lightning manipulation and a second later, bands of electricity appeared from his feet and started traveling along his body before disappearing just under his eyes. (Think of one of those antennae things that have a single band of electricity starting at the base in the middle of the two sticks that travels to the top and disappears before repeating. Same concept only instead of one band there's ten evenly spaced.)

Everyone besides Kakashi was shocked at this while the Silver-haired Jounin just raised his eyebrow at his student. Naruto then got a gleam in his eye while he brought his right hand to his left shoulder. He then grinned like the professional prankster he was as he shot he right arm forward so his hand was pointing right at the missing mist nin. Right as his hand got in position, all of the bands of electricity shot down his arm at high speed and hit Zabuza right in the chest in quick succession.

Zabuza spasmed as the consecutive strikes tore his nervous system to pieces. He then slumped to the ground. Before he could say anything however, he grunted in pain when Naruto appeared with his left hand coated in wind chakra sticking into his shoulder while the blond was kneeling to his left.

Looking into the so called demon's eyes Naruto leaned in and said "You chose the wrong side." He was about to swing his arm and behead the man when a pair of senbon needles suddenly shot into the other side of the man's neck. Naruto jerked slightly before looking up at what appeared to be a young hunter nin from the mist village in a tree nearby.

'I didn't even sense him.' Naruto and Kakashi thought to themselves.

"Thank you for your help. I've been looking for a chance to take him down for a while now." The boy said while jumping down from his perch next to the body. "Now if you will excuse me, I must go and dispose of the body properly."

Warning bells shot into instant action in Naruto's head when he heard this. Hunter nins were supposed to dispose of bodies on the spot.

Narrowing his eyes slightly in suspicion, he said "Here, I know a fire justu that will help." Right after he said it, his hands blurred in the sequence, but just as the fire stream left his mouth the hunter had left via shunshine and all Naruto ended up burning was a small patch of ground. He was surprised when he heard a popping sound behind him. He turned around and saw that the sword was gone as well.

"Damn." He muttered while walking back to the group. Reaching them he said "Zabuza got away. That hunter ninja was obviously a fake one and his helper to boot. I saw where he put those needles of his. He most likely put the guy into a near death state. We got a week at most before they can be ready to try again."

Kakashi nodded agreeing with him while Sasuke and Sakura were still trying to figure out what had happened.

Sasuke was looking at Naruto in awe while thinking 'How the hell did he create that lightning on his body? I need to learn how to do that, it would really come in handy against my brother.'

Sakura was also in awe at her teammate and said "Wow Naruto. You really beat that guy hands down."

Naruto shook his head and said "I wish you were right Sakura. Truth is I should have killed him as my first move. I only was able to do that because he didn't know I could do what I did. Now he will be able to possibly counter it. Plus there was that fake hunter nin. He was a lot stronger than he looked. I'm afraid things only got harder now." Kakashi nodded knowing his favorite student was right.

Tazuna then decided to lighten the mood. "Come on." he said "My house isn't very far. We can rest up there. My daughter and grandson are sure to be glad to see me back."

With that, the group left while Naruto thought to himself 'Definitely interesting.'


	15. Call Of Duty: Black Ops

Call of Duty: Black Ops

Author's Notes: Hey guys, sorry about the short update last time, but I wanted to get this particular part of the wave mission in one shot since as the title suggests, Naruto is about to show what he does best in this fic: search and destroy. Let's get started shall we?

Wave: Tazuna's House

It didn't take long for the group to reach Tazuna's house. When they got there, they were introduced to Tsunami, his 28 year old daughter. She quickly ushered them all in and they sat around the living room.

As soon as they were settled, Sasuke turned to Naruto and asked "Naruto, how did you do that move with the lightning bands? I didn't see you create any hand signs for a justu?"

Naruto chuckled and said "You wouldn't. That Sasuke, was the wonderful art of elemental manipulation. Sure, you can perform a justu related to your element, but if you make it truly yours by learning to manipulate it properly, you can do things that you never imagined. For instance," At this Naruto held up his right arm a little in a fist with his wrist bent. Snapping his fist open so his fingers were spread out and flicking his wrist back at the same time, his entire hand became coated in fire.

Naruto enjoyed the looks on the two rooks faces for a moment before he extinguished the flames and continued. "Elemental manipulation is one of the hardest things for a shinobi to complete depending on what their nature is. While I have obtained mastery over all five elements, it is only because I have had an army of clones to work on it almost non-stop for a year and a half straight. (He started the same year he learned shadow clones and finished just before graduating.) And believe me, it was hard. Part of the problem was that wind, which is my natural element by the way, is the hardest to learn. Fire came a lot easier due to the fact that wind powers fire, but the rest were also extremely hard to do. While you two most likely won't be able to master any elements besides you natural ones, once you do master, your elemental justus well be even more powerful."

Sasuke got a gleam in his eye and asked "When do we start?"

Naruto and Kakashi both chuckled at this before Kakashi said "Not for a while I'm afraid. The soonest would be after we return to the village. While it is true we could start now, it would take too long to finish and we need to get you and Sakura in better shape for when Zabuza and that fake hunter nin show up. Naruto, do you think you could make them an advanced set of chakra weights?" (Advanced simply means that instead of a set of weights, one for each limb and chest, that there is only one seal for the entire body.)

Naruto nodded and said "Yeah, I can have them made tonight."

Kakashi nodded while Tazuna and his daughter just looked confused. Sakura and Sasuke were wondering what their sensei had planned but didn't say anything. Afterwards, the team went and put their equipment in a spare room and the team just relaxed until dinner time where they met Inari, Tazuna's grandson. Things didn't start off very smoothly with him and Naruto to say the least.

Kakashi and Naruto were discussing different ways of getting their two charges up to spec as much as they could in the week long grace period they had while said rooks were eating dinner and listening. Inari had been hiding behind the door to the kitchen listening when he heard enough and showed himself to the group.

"Why do you even bother? You're just going to die anyway." Inari said while looking at them.

"Inari!" Tsunami said before Tazuna calmed her down.

Naruto took one look at the kid's eyes and thought. 'He has the same eyes I used to. I wonder…'

Naruto got up from where he was sitting next to Kakashi and walked over to the kid and kneeled down to be eye level with him. After looking into his eyes for a few seconds he asked. "Who did you lose?"

Inari and Tsunami gasped while Tazuna looked shocked. Sakura and Sasuke looked confused. Inari then got a hard look in his eyes and said "What do you mean?"

Naruto sighed and said. "I know those eyes Inari. They are the eyes of pain. I will ask again, who did you lose?"

Inari just got mad and said "You know those eyes? What would you know of pain? You live in a village where you don't want for anything! You probably have both your parents waiting for you when you get back and take care of you. Your not even from around here so what would you know about losing someone and suffering?" The kid was screaming at this point.

Sakura and Sasuke got nervous because something like this had happened before. Sasuke was especially nervous since he remembered when he had asked the blond similar questions.

Naruto just continued looking into the kid's eyes for another five seconds making sure he was done before he said calmly not raising his voice. "Contrary to what you seem to believe Inari, you are not alone in the pain department. I grew up as an orphan never knowing either of my parents. Sasuke here lost his entire clan in one night. I have been beaten and had assassination attempts simply for bearing a burden that I never had a choice in having since the day I was born. I know what pain is Inari, but I also know that you can not let it get to you. You must instead take into stride as much as you can and learn from it. Unless you do this and become a stronger person because of it, you will only allow the pain and suffering of that event grind you down into nothing. Believe me when I say that whoever you had lost would not want you to become nothing but a shadow of yourself. Talk to me Inari, you will be amazed how much a simple thing as just talking about it can help. So I will ask one more time. Who did you lose?"

Sakura and Sasuke let out the breath that both never realized they were holding. They were expecting Naruto to explode and were glad he hadn't. Tsunami and Tazuna looked on in amazement while Kakashi just eye smiled at his blond student.

Inari looked into Naruto's eyes and saw all the pain he had suffered. But what he saw even more than pain was hope, strength, and the largest thing of all, determination. Straightening up, Inari took a deep breath and said "I lost my father. He was the only one to stand up to Gato when he came and Gato had him killed. When he came to our family he was always so strong but Gato's men killed him to make an example. That is why I think you don't stand a chance."

While Inari was saying this, tears were coming to his eyes, and he looked down. Naruto put his hand on Inari's shoulder causing the boy to look up. Naruto then said "Inari, I cannot say that I know what it feels like to lose a parent. But I do not think that your father would want you to be like this. Try to be strong like he was. Can you do that for him?"

Inari just nodded and said "I'll try."

Naruto nodded as well and said while putting his hand on the boy's head "That's all I ask Inari." Before getting up and left the room calling over his shoulder. "I'm going to go ahead and get those weights ready. Sakura and Sasuke? Prepare for hell tomorrow."

The two rookie Genins paled when they heard this. They already thought that their teammate was a slave driver when it came to training. They were extremely afraid about what the blond would do to them in the morning. Kakashi meanwhile was silently approving of how Naruto had handled the situation with the boy while Tazuna and his daughter were amazed at the change they could already see in their (grand)son.

Tazuna turned to Kakashi and said "Your student really has a way with words."

Kakashi eye smiled and said "That he does."

With Naruto, he heard in his mind. **"Well said son."** Naruto smiled and thanked his father as he went upstairs.

Once he got to the room his team would be sharing, he grabbed a blank scroll and cut two squares out of it before starting to write the needed seals on it. An hour later, he finished and went to sleep.

The Next Morning In The Forest Nearby

True to Naruto's word, the next day was hell for Sakura and Sasuke.

Kakashi and Naruto woke up before the crack of dawn. The two got dressed and Naruto created a clone which went downstairs to wait for Tazuna to wake up and go with him to the bridge. The two then grabbed the two rooks' change of cloths before going over to the still sleeping rookies.

Kakashi knelt down next to Sasuke and lightly put a hand down on his shoulder while Naruto did the same to Sakura. Nodding to each other, the two shinobi shushined with their charges into a large clearing in the forest close to the house with a river nearby.

Standing up, the two once again nodded to each other before both started a sequence of hand signs. Immediately, a gallon of water condensed from the moisture in the air above the heads of the rooks and immediately dropped on the still sleeping kids.

Naruto and Kakashi grinned as both of their students shrieked at the rude awakening. In his mind, Naruto could once again hear his father dieing from laughter as he rolled around his cage inside Naruto's mind.

Sputtering, Sasuke and Sakura sat up and looked around. Sasuke saw the grins and looked daggers at his teachers and said "What the hell is wrong with you people?"

Kakashi and Naruto burst out laughing before tossing Sasuke and Sakura a towel each along with their day to day clothes.

Naruto then said "Here. Dry yourselves off and get changed. I'll seal your sleep wear and we can get started."

As he finished speaking, he used a small earth style justu to raise walls around the rooks with a wall separating the two. He caused the walls to go back down when he heard both say that they were changed. He wasted no time sealing their night ware into a scroll he had with him.

He then took out the seals he had made yesterday and said with a grin "All right Privates. Welcome to boot camp!"

Sasuke and Sakura looked at him like he was crazy. Kakashi just grinned as well before opening one of the scroll holsters on his Jounin vest and flipped out a scroll.

Turning around before placing the scroll on the ground and opening it, he then poured some chakra into it. With a poof, a large smoke cloud covered the area behind the Genins.

Turning around, the two looked in horror to find one of the biggest obstacle courses they've ever seen, including a 100 foot rock climb and 100 foot cargo net climb with two fireman's poles on the other side. There was also a 50 foot monkey bar set as well as a 90 foot tire run, (For those who don't know, a tire run is two rows of tires next to each other that you run through.) a 50 foot rope climb, a 25 foot pool, (don't ask) and what obstacle course is complete without a 75 foot balance beam?

Seeing their faces, Naruto chuckled before going into drill sergeant mode. "All right troops. Today's objective is to get from the start of this course to the end without stopping and at the same pace as our warm up jogs. You must do this at least five times consecutively or till sundown. You will be using these chakra weight seals (he held them up for them to see) to double your weight. Tomorrow we will be adding another 50 pounds. After that, you will start having to perform this course in a set amount of time. Each day will have a shorter time."

Sakura and Sasuke paled upon hearing this and both gulped. Sasuke suddenly shook his head and turned to Kakashi before screaming "Why the hell do you have the Anbu's training obstacle course with you?"

Kakashi chuckled and said "Sometimes on a mission there are some slow periods so me and Naruto would sometimes use this course to pass the time." (Truth be told, he had sealed the course just before they left since he knew they would be in Waves for at least a week and it would be good training. The chakra weights were just an added bonus to help speed up the process. But they didn't need to know that.)

Naruto grinned while Sakura and Sasuke's jaws dropped to the ground while they both thought the same thing. 'What the hell are these two?'

After putting the seals on his teammates, Naruto created a shadow clone and told it to stay and watch before he turned around and started walking away.

Sasuke asked "Where are you going?" not sure he wanted to know if the original was going somewhere else to do even more insane training. The blonde's answer confused him though when he said that he was going to go collect some information.

The blond wouldn't explain though, and soon was gone from sight. The clone then activated the seals and Sasuke and Sakura literally dropped to the floor from the suddenly doubled weight on their bodies.

Kakashi took out his favorite book and while walking to a tree on the edge of the clearing said "You better get started. The sooner you both complete the course five times without stopping while doing it, the sooner you can go back to the house."

The two rooks just looked at him like he grew a second head before looking to the course. The two started the course but took their time doing it the first hour since they weren't being timed right now and just wanted to see if they could even complete it in the first place.

Back with Naruto, he was walking through the village through the village asking around for information on Gato's organization. He had decided last night as he was working on the seals that he would put some pressure on Gato and show the man that the bridge wasn't the only thing he should fear. He began asking people about any of Gato's men who hung around the village and where they usually could be found.

After an hour of info gathering, he headed to a tavern near the market district which had been completely taken over by the man's goons. Walking into the building, he headed over to the bar while sensing every head turn and watch as he got the barkeep's attention.

"I'd like a shot of whiskey please." Naruto said to the barkeep. (Remember, a ninja is considered an adult as soon as they graduate from the academy. "Old enough to kill, old enough to drink." And with kyubi sealed inside him, it takes a lot of alcohol to make this blond drunk.)

The barkeep just laughed and said. "Don't you think you're a little young brat?"

Naruto just pointed to his headband with his thumb and said "Old enough to kill, old enough to drink. Besides, what do you care? I'm paying for it aren't I?" He suited action to words by pulling out a few bills.

The barkeep just shook his head with a "Whatever" before taking the money and pouring the blond a shot. Taking it, Naruto shot the liquid into his mouth swallowing it in the same motion. Inwardly he shuddered while thinking 'Man that stuff's terrible. How anyone can drink this stuff is beyond me.'

Slamming the glass on the counter, Naruto turned around and was about to slip off the stool when he noticed most of the occupants in the room coming towards him.

One of the thugs who was closer to him than the rest decided to be the spokesperson for the group. "Hey kid, I see you have quite a lot of money on you. Mind sharing some to help pay for our tab?" The rest of the group got evil looks in their eyes.

Naruto just calmly looked at them all before saying. "Sorry guys, but my mom said it's not a good idea to talk to strangers."

The group started laughing. Once they were done, another person close to Naruto said "You got spunk brat! But I don't think you understand. That wasn't a question. Now hand over your money and we "might" let you walk out of here in one piece."

Naruto got his fox grin on his face and said "Let's see you try it." All of a sudden he disappeared from sight causing everyone to wonder where he went before they heard the sound of the door slamming shut behind them. Turning around, they saw Naruto standing in front of the closed door with his arms crossed grinning at them like a mad man.

Uncrossing his arms, Naruto formed a familiar hand sign before saying "Let the fun begin." Right after he said that, ten clones poofed into existence. Each clone had the same grin on their faces while the thugs started to get scared. As one the Narutos launched themselves at the group.

Outside, the citizens of Wave country suddenly heard shouts of pain and for mercy while seeing the building start shaking and bouncing around while hearing cartoon fight sounds from inside including an elephant trumpet. (always wanted to write a scene where a cartoon fight went on.) Inside, the Narutos were tearing through the thugs, breaking limbs, tables, and pretty much anything else that was in their way.

The barkeep had dropped to the floor just as the attack started and was trying to crawl away from the scene when a pair of feet suddenly landed in front of him. Looking up, he saw a pair of legs in forest green cargo shorts followed by an upper body in a grey t-shirt. Finally above that, was the original Naruto's face grinning at the barkeep like Anko would grin at a prisoner about to be interrogated. The barkeep started whimpering as Naruto grabbed the poor soul's shirt and started dragging the guy out the tavern through the back door while his clones continued to beat the snot out of the rest of the thugs.

Outside, Naruto jerked the man up and slammed him into the wall. Both of them could hear what was going on in the tavern and Naruto was looking at the man with a look that promised pain if he didn't get what he wanted. Leaning in right into the guy's face he said. "All right, I know that you use that tavern as a staging area for operations in this region. Start talking. I want to know about storage areas and shipments."

The man just trembled while looking at Naruto and said "I don't know what you're talking about. I just manage the bar."

Naruto narrowed his eyes and said "Oh really? Well even if that is true, which I doubt by the way, I'm sure you still hear plenty. Why don't you go ahead and tell me what you heard, hm?"

The man said "You're crazy, those guys didn't say anything that I heard about that kind of stuff. Please let me go!"

Naruto got fed up with this crap and knocked the man out with a chop to the neck. Creating the same hand seals he performed after knocking out one of the demon brothers, he entered the man's mind and found exactly what he needed. After leaving the man's mind, Naruto just shook his head and said "Stubborn old goat weren't you?" before dispelling the clones that had been causing mayhem in the tavern before walking away.

Once the screaming and other sounds of fighting ended in the tavern, the citizens who had been standing outside cautiously went in and gasped at what they saw.

While every person in that room was still alive, every single one of them had at least two broken limbs and were missing every single tooth in their mouths. Every single table and chair were smashed into little pieces and every single bottle behind the bar was broken. As for the bar itself, it had quite a few human sized holes inside of it, with a few people even still laying where they had been smashed through it. In short, it looked like the Tasmanian Devil had been through there.

Back with Naruto, the blond was walking through the village towards the warehouse that was close to the outskirts of the village considering his options.

There were three warehouses on this island alone. This didn't count the primary dock that was stationed on the side of the village that was about a mile away from the warehouse. There were a good number of ports and storage areas among the other islands as well.

Add to the fact that Naruto now knew of what ships were carrying drugs, women, and other illegal contraband that would be coming in throughout the week and Naruto had literally a hundred ways of pissing the multibillionaire off.

Right now, he was heading to the closest warehouse to scout it out and then he would head to the docks and do the same before he came back that night and infiltrate them. He also thought that it would be best to take out the two ships carrying drugs that were supposed to come in the morning while they were still out at sea.

Briefly he wondered if he should target those first before dismissing that thought since they would be further out. He then decided that he would hit the warehouse first, then go after the dock before heading to open waters and sinking the ships.

In his mind, he could already picture the midget's face when he learned about what Naruto had done and he and his father chuckled at the thought. Buying a fruit from a vendor along the way, Naruto then started planning his attacks on the other islands in the archipelago that was called the Land of Waves.

It was shortly after lunch time when Naruto finished scoping out his first two targets for that night and headed back to the bridge builder's house. Greeting Tsunami who was in the kitchen and Inari who was in his room, Naruto went into the guest room and laid down to get some sleep. God knows he would need it for tonight.

That night during dinner time, Sasuke, Sakura, Kakashi, and Naruto's clone walked into the kitchen. As soon as it stepped through the door, the clone dispelled itself and Naruto got his memories. He noted that the rooks had completed their task before they had left and nodded to himself before looking at the two.

'They really are a mess.' He thought before saying to them "Had fun guys?" while grinning at the two.

The two glared at him but didn't have the energy necessary to do anything more before they dropped like a sack of potatoes at the table and started eating. Naruto chuckled and finished his meal before standing up and heading outside of the house. Inari looked up and said "Where are you going Naruto?"

Naruto just replied "To the roof. I like looking at the moon sometimes." True to his word, Naruto leapt up to the roof once he was outside and just watched the moon for an hour while getting ready to do what he had planned. After that, he went to bed with the rest of the team.

It was around eleven o'clock when Naruto got back up and started getting dressed.

Naruto slipped out of the house as quietly as he could but stopped when he heard his sensei's voice behind him. "Where are you going Naruto?"

Naruto turned around and saw his teacher leaning against the front wall of the house looking at Naruto. Deciding to be honest, Naruto said "There are a few things I need to take care of Kakashi-sensei. Gato needs to learn that the bridge isn't the only thing he should fear in Wave."

Kakashi narrowed his eye at the look of determination in his student's eyes before sighing. "This wouldn't by any chance have to do with all that mayhem you caused earlier today would it?"

Seeing his sensei's son's nod, the Jounin just sighed and said "I know I can't stop you from doing this Naruto, but please be careful out there."

Naruto nodded and said "I will Kakashi-sensei. I'll see you in the morning." He then turned around and walked away into the night.

Kakashi just sighed once again before shaking his head while heading inside and mumbling about blonds and their need to take on the world by themselves. 'Like father, like son.' the cyclops thought as he laid down to get some more sleep.

(Naruto's pov)

After leaving Kakashi-sensei at the house, I made my way quickly and quietly through the village towards the warehouse. Slowing down to a leisurely walk when I got within twenty five feet of the building, I channeled a little of my father's chakra mixed in with some of my own to my eyes like he had taught me and the night instantly turned brighter. As I kept walking, I took notice of the two guards that were stationed in front of the sliding doors into the warehouse.

I created a clone and as soon as it appeared in a poof of smoke, me and the clone launched ourselves at the guards before they could react to the sound the clone had made when it was created. We took them out without a sound and lowered their dead bodies just as quietly.

I then focused on what I had learned about the warehouse and remembered that there were two more regular entrances on either side. Gesturing to my clone, I told it in battle sign language to head around one side and infiltrate there while I did the same on the other. The clone wordlessly nodded before giving me a salute and headed towards his entrance.

I headed to my own entrance and took out the guard on my side just as quietly as the previous two. Not bothering with the door since I didn't know how much noise it would make, I used a fazing justu to walk through the door like a ghost would. I then almost literally walked straight through the person guarding the other side of the door a few feet away from me with his back currently turned away.

Keeping myself from making a sound in slight surprise at the presence of the second guard, I then thought about how it was a good thing I didn't open the door. Unfazing myself just as I reached the man, I pulled out a kunai before clamping my hand over his mouth and slicing his throat. I silently lowered the man after he stopped moving and looked around.

The door I came through was mostly hidden from view of the rest of the warehouse by a long stack of very large ten foot square crates in a row from one end of the warehouse near the double doors to the other side.

I mentally whistled at the size of the crates and how much drugs must have been in them before silently jumping to the top of the row and looking down. There was another row of large crates on the other side mirroring my own row and I saw my clone also looking around. In between the two rows, were about five rows of smaller five foot crates that were arranged in rows with gaps in the middle of each row.

Catching my clone's attention, I again signaled to continue taking out the people inside that it finds. After receiving a nod from the clone, I dropped down and began hunting the remaining people in the building. I came across ten more people in my half of the building and took care of them the same way I took care of the guard on the inside of the door.

Once that was finished, me and my clone met up by the double doors and we could finally talk.

"You know what to do." I said and my clone nodded before pulling out a rather large stack of paper bombs.

I exited once again using my fazing justu to pass through the doors and head to a safe distance. Ten minutes later, I felt the clone dispel itself telling me that it hat finished placing the paper bombs where needed.

Nodding to myself, I sent my chakra to the pieces of paper and watched as the ensuing fireball took place. Grinning as the entire building was consumed by the fire, I then used a water justu to put it out when I figured it had burned enough. Didn't want any of the other buildings nearby to burn as well now did I?

I then rushed to the dock as quickly as I could and repeated the operation. When I was finished taking out the guards around the dock and the ship that was currently docked there, I had more clones set up even more paper bombs strategically aboard the ship while having others use small level fire justus to destroy the drugs that were being stored there.

I would have used paper bombs on the buildings but I wanted to leave this dock more or less intact so that the people of wave wouldn't have too much to rebuild when the bridge was finished.

Once everything was taken care of and the ship was sinking while burning, I took off running on the water out to sea to take out the two ships that were now considerably closer to the shore now then when I started.

Regardless, it took me an hour straight of running before I came to the first ship. Good thing it was a clear night and I could count on using the stars for navigation, cause I traveled hard and fast. Luckily, the two ships were together so I wouldn't have to worry about finding my way back to the island after traveling between the two ships.

Even though we were out at sea, I killed the ships' crews just as silently as I did on land and an hour later I had the bombs set to blow. However, instead of sinking these ships, I had the bombs set to just burn them. I wanted Gato's men to find the burned out hulks and know that not even those ships that were not in sight of land weren't safe.

Running away from the ships back to land, I blew the bombs and smiled as the view in front of me lit up as the ships turned into huge floating bonfires. As I reached the shore, I thought to myself 'Not a bad start.'

I could hear my father agree before falling back to sleep. I then made my way back to the old man's house and quietly entered and went to sleep. I could still catch about an hour's worth of sleep and I planned to do just that.


	16. Call of Duty: Armada Start

Call of Duty Armada Start

Author's Notes: Hey guys, sorry it's a day late but the hotel's wi-fi was mediocre at best. Also I realized that I never mentioned what Naruto wears except for what he was wearing during that bar fight. That is pretty much what he wears every day. The cargo pants have a lot of pockets so that he can hold his scrolls in them and he wears a kunai pouch around his waist. He wears a slightly loose t-shirt, usually gray, with the Uzumaki swirl on the back. He wears his headband on his forehead and he wears ninja sandals for footwear. On another note, I feel I should explain a few things about when Naruto accesses the Kyubi's chakra. First off, Besides the Chakra cloak, Naruto does not transform except for when the Kyubi actually takes over. There are also two different forms when Kyubi takes over: Destructive and Justu forms. Destructive is the more commonly used form that people use and the canon form as well. As the name suggests, this form is pure destruction oriented. The justu form is where Naruto's eyes turn red and his whiskers become more feral. In this form, Kyubi maintains Naruto's human form so that he can cast not only the justus that Naruto knows but also 'demon justus' as well.

It was the morning after Naruto's self imposed black ops mission. He planned to continue the mission in a not so black ops manner in a little bit. But first, he and his teacher had something to take care of.

Once again, Kakashi and Naruto were standing in the clearing with their students blissfully asleep. Kakashi was just about to start the hand sequence when he caught Naruto holding his right hand up in the universal sign to stop and shaking his head.

Kakashi's look of confusion quickly turned evil as Naruto pulled two air horns out of the pockets of the cargo shorts he was currently wearing.

'Glad I took that box of air horns I found in that cabin onboard the ship in port.' Naruto thought as he tossed one of the horns to his teacher. He could hear his father chuckling evilly in agreement.

'**This is going to be so good.'** the fox thought to himself as both vets leaned down and placed the horns right next to the rooks' ears.

Looking at each other, the two nodded and held their other hands up with three fingers raised and started counting down in perfect sync: 3, 2, 1..0!

!

Both sleeping Genin shot up like a rocket screaming. The three older occupants of the clearing burst out into laughter.

Sasuke glared at the two before screaming out "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?"

This just made the three laugh even more. Naruto and Kakashi fell down on the ground holding their sides laughing their rear ends off and Naruto swore he heard a thud as the Great Nine Tailed Fox did the same in his cage rolling around nearly dieing from laughing so hard.

Naruto heard his father gasping between laughs and said **"Ah kit, that was PRICELESS!"** before even more laughter followed. Naruto mentally agreed with his father before standing up again.

Kakashi soon followed suit and said "Okay, now that you two are awake, lets get started shall we? Naruto?"

Naruto nodded and once again tossed the rooks their clothes before creating the earth walls. After the two were dressed, he sealed their nightwear in a scroll as Kakashi unsealed the obstacle course again.

Naruto then created a clone and left it in the clearing as he left to finish his little personal crusade that he had started last night.

Back in the village, Gato was not a happy man. He had been rudely awaken early this morning when one of his lieutenants had barged into his room shouting about how the main island's primary warehouse, the dock, and the ship that had been in port that night were completely destroyed. Oh sure, the buildings on the dock were still intact, but everything that had been in them was burnt to a crisp.

'Damn it! There was a lot of valuable goods on this island! Just who the hell did this? The only people I can think of do be able to do all this are ninja, but the only ones here are that so called 'Demon of the Mist,' his apprentice, and that Hidden Leaf team that Momochi failed to kill.'

Gato refused to belief that a team of snot nosed brats could have done this even with a Jounin with them and Zabuza was bed ridden. So who on earth did this? Unfortunately, Gato's mood wasn't about to improve as one of his subordinates nervously walked up to him.

"Uh, Gato sir?" The lackey said.

"What?" Gato asked in clipped tones.

The man swallowed before saying "There were two ships that were supposed to be here in the morning. When they didn't arrive on time, we tried to raise them on the radio, but they never answered. So we sent a boat to look along the route they took. The boat found the two missing ships but they were completely destroyed. It's a wonder that they are still above water."

Gato's eyes widened and he turned and grabbed the man's collar and pulled the man's face level to his.

"Get a boat over here and take me to them." He growled out. The man could only nod before running away.

Back with Naruto, he had just reached another clearing in the woods far enough from the rest of team 7 and any one else who would come out. Looking around, he nodded to himself before he sat cross legged in the center of the clearing. Pulling out a map and unrolling it in his lap, Naruto studied it for a short moment before he then closed his eyes.

In Naruto's Mind Scape

Naruto opened his eyes seeing that he was inside the Kyubi's cage. He noticed that as he hoped, the map was still on his lap. He calmly placed the map on the ground.

Looking up and over his right shoulder, he noticed his father in fox form standing behind him and looking down at him smiling. Forming a smile of his own, he said "Well then father, now that we have had our fun with our younger teammates, why don't we get down to business?"

The fox chuckled and said **"Sure thing son. So what's the plan?" **As he said that, the fox laid down so that his head was slightly to the right over his son's so he could see what he showed on the map. Naruto nodded, took out a red marker and started drawing.

"Okay here's the plan. By now Gato has got to know about the attack on that warehouse and the dock. Possibly even about what happened to those two ships that I took out at sea. That being said, I don't believe that being sneaky anymore will make any difference seeing as how he will increase the security now. At least, it's not much point in our case considering the other ways we can destroy those other storage areas."

The fox nodded his head at this since the blond below him was, while always good at stealth, more inclined to the destructive side when he could.

Naruto then began drawing lines from the island they were currently on towards the islands nearest them circling where the bases were on each one.

"I plan to create an army of shadow clones and send them out in groups to the rest of the islands as well as a small group to take out those other two warehouses on this island. After each island has been taken, the groups well move on to the next in a island hopping maneuver. As they are doing this, they will board any ships they find. If the ship has drugs on them, they will proceed to sink it. If it is one of the ships carrying slaves on board, they will commandeer the ship and bring the boats to the nearest harbor on the main side. I plan on having them reach the outer islands before night fall. While that is happening, about fifty percent will head out to the main shipping lanes in the ocean near here and take out any ships there doing the same thing with each ship as the ones here. I plan on leaving Gato's primary base last. This is more to induce fear than anything else. It tells them that no where is save in this country and that I can attack them whenever I want."

Looking up again Naruto said. "I'm not going to lie to you father. I'm going to need as much chakra as I can handle to do this. I may be able to create thousands of shadow clones on my own, but I have never tried to send them across an entire country or to a part of an ocean before and held them so long while doing so."

Kyubi nodded and said **"I understand. I think your right, you have a far greater chakra reserve than most humans alive, but even you don't have enough to keep the clones in existence that far away."** As he said this, seven of the fox's nine tails turned to vapor and surrounded the blond. With a final good luck from his father, Naruto sent his thoughts outward leaving his mind scape.

On the outside, Naruto opened his eyes as the chakra cloak began surrounding him with seven tails floating behind him lazily waving as if they were caught in a wind. Naruto quickly rolled up the map that was still in his lap and placed it back in one of his pockets before standing up.

Taking a deep breath before beginning, Naruto crossed his hands in his favorite sign before saying. "Mass Army Shadow Clone Justu!" (Yes, that is a form of the justu. I saw it in a filler episode.)

A bunch of popping sounds was heard as a temporary fog covered a large area. When it cleared, it showed around five thousand clones standing around looking at him. While the chakra cloak was no longer around the original or the clones, if you looked close enough, each clone had a small red ring around their pupils, showing that the chakra had been properly transferred.

Naruto looked to his clones and nodded before saying "You guys know what to do. Try to stay clear of the village on this island or any others. We don't want to freak the villagers out and we definitely don't want any of Gato's men getting word out for as long as possible. Also, make sure you don't dispel too close together, if you feel a group dispel, wait at least a minute before doing the same. I don't want to be in a coma for a week after this is over."

He heard a collective "Roger!" from the clones before, as one, they turned outwards and took off. Naruto nodded to himself before he fell on his butt. Although his father's chakra had gone into them to keep them in existence when they got beyond his normal reach, it still took a lot out of him to actually make that many of them. (Later, he will be able to make ten thousand if he wants to without even breathing heavily, but for now, four thousand is the most he can make and still stand. Five thousand is his absolute limit right now.)

Naruto sat for about ten minutes before getting up and heading back to where his teammates were. When he got there, his clone nodded to him and dispelled itself. Naruto received his memories as he saw Sasuke and Sakura pause from their training to look at him.

Sasuke asked "Where did you go this time?"

Naruto grinned and just said "I had a bit of personal business to take care of."

Sakura just shrugged before getting back to it. Sasuke did the same, but Naruto could have sworn he heard him muttering something about not trusting them enough to train while he was away relieving himself and leaving a clone just to make sure they did.

Naruto chuckled as he sat down against the tree his teacher was reading in before closing his eyes.

Back in the village, all of the villagers were wondering who had destroyed the warehouse and the ship that had been docked. Word of what Naruto had done in the tavern the previous day had spread but no one really thought that he had been able to do all of this. At least not by himself. One person however knew without a doubt the truth. After all, Inari had not only seen Naruto leave before midnight, he had also seen him come an hour before the team of ninjas left to go train.

Back with Gato, he was currently on board a medium sized boat looking at the two burned out husks that used to be two of his ships. His face was scrunched up in anger as he thought 'Who ever did this is going to pay.'

Back with Naruto's group, Naruto had just finished taking a thirty minute nap. Stretching his arms out, he noticed that Sasuke and Sakura were walking back towards the beginning of the course getting ready to do it again. He decided to go ahead and get some training of his own done.

As he walked, he added more chakra to his already engaged weights giving each one another ten pounds of weight before taking the starting position and shot off like a rocket toward the rock climb. Sasuke and Sakura just looked on in shock as Naruto ran through the obstacle course like it was nothing in five minutes flat. Both shared the same thought 'What on earth is he?'

During the training, Naruto was constantly receiving updates from his clones as one would dispel itself to inform him of each groups progress when they had taken out an army. Normally Naruto wouldn't do this since his clones would most likely need the numbers, but the groups were particularly large and with his father's chakra in them, they were basically at the same level of skill and endurance as the original himself. The first memories he received were from the clones that had been with the groups taking out the last two warehouses on the island he and his team were currently on.

Everything was going to plan as he saw memories of the clones spreading out from the island like a giant ripple before either taking over ships they came across or landing on the islands in their path and removing the presence of Gato's men before moving on.

To Naruto, this reminded him of a stone dropping in a lake causing ripples to expand out in ever increasing circles. Just like the lake, the Land of Waves was invaded by an armada of clones in a cleansing sweep.

'This land is being cleansed by a baptism of fire. By this time tomorrow, none of Gato's men will be able to sleep at night without fear.' Naruto thought to himself as he heard his father agree. Naruto continued to run the course again and again pushing himself to the limit as more and more warehouses and staging areas were burnt to the ground on the other islands.

He realized that though the clones were huge in number, they still moved stealthily through each island they landed on and did their best not to give the people at the bases a chance to react or get word out.

A few bases still got word out however, and when the clones realized that the bases ahead were waiting for them they took the game up a notch and dropped the stealth approach and opted for more destructive techniques against the warehouses with drugs in them.

For those that were housing slaves, the clones disengaged the chakra weights that they had obtained from when the original created them and killed all of the guards in speeds that civilians had no hope of catching. Once the prisoners were free, one of the ships that was commandeered would change course to pick the group up after the clones on board gained the memories of a dispelled clone. These operations continued well into the night as the last few islands fell and the ships with the freed slaves began their final approach to the mainland.

Meanwhile, back with Gato, his anger was slowly turning to fear as his men lost contact with base after base. Even the people he sent to check out the disturbances never answered back. It was as if an army was going to each island and leaving a force behind. (Sadly for him, only one clone stayed behind until the next morning. Pretty sad considering how much the man spends on man power.) The only source of comfort was that his primary base had yet to be hit but even that didn't do much for him since he was sure that at any minute it would be attacked as well.

That night at dinner, Naruto had just received another update and he was bursting out in laughter. Everyone was looking at him curiously. Noticing this, Naruto got up motioning to Kakashi, and led him outside.

Once they got outside, Kakashi asked "Okay Naruto, what is so funny?"

Naruto got an evil gleam and said "One of my clones thought it would be funny to dismount the fog horn system on one of Gato's drug ships and sealed it away."

Kakashi raised an eyebrow before he realized what Naruto had been thinking but didn't say. He immediately chuckled as the two headed back inside. Sasuke and Sakura heard Kakashi chuckling as he came into the kitchen and asked what was so funny but he just told them that it was an inside joke.

After dinner, Inari found Naruto on the dock staring out over the water. He sat down next to him and said "Thank you for everything you are doing Naruto."

Naruto just looked confused at Inari and said "Uh, your welcome Inari, but what am I doing?"

Inari just looked at him funny before grinning and said. "No need to hide it from me, I saw you leave the house two nights ago and come back in early. And I am pretty sure I know what that laugh at dinner was all about."

Naruto chuckled and said "Oh really?"

Inari just continued to grin and said "Yup. I remember when you explained about your clones that night at dinner. You just got a memory from one didn't you?"

Seeing Naruto nod he asked what had been so funny and Naruto told him. Needless to say, Inari had laughed at what the clone had did and asked why he would want a fog horn. His only reply was an evil look coming from the blond next to him and he suddenly realized he did not really want to know what his new friend would use it for. Naruto noticed the look the younger kid had on his face and chuckled before saying that Inari didn't need to worry since he would be very far from him when he used it. This calmed Inari down a bit but he was still worried about what the whiskered Genin had planned.

The next morning found Naruto in the training clearing as he was setting up his new fog horn. The last clone had just dispelled itself reporting that the last boat in the area had docked near the closet mainland harbor. It had been interesting seeing how some of his clones handled the port authorities and the subsequent unloading of the unwilling passengers. One port had tried giving the clones a hard time. The port officials were obviously on Gato's paycheck but the clones had used some of his father's chakra to summon more clones and had literally formed a corridor for the women to walk down as the rest proceeded to kick anyone's butt who tried to stop them.

Shaking his head at that memory, Naruto finished the last hookup just as a swirl of leaves revealed his sensei with the two rooks still sleeping between them. To be fair on their ears, the two vets had decided to have the horn pointed in the opposite direction. Naruto lightly jumped down from the platform the clone had sealed for the horn and joined his teacher. (This isn't a horn from today's ships. The horn itself is at least ten feet tall at its end.)

"I think we should give this to the old man after this mission. I'm sure he could put it to good use." Naruto whispered to Kakashi who nodded while looking at it.

Kakashi then turned to Naruto and said "Well shall we?"

Naruto nodded and sensed his father go into his human form and along with Kakashi put his fingers in his ears. Naruto walked over to the switch for the fog horn and flipped it into position for a ten second blast. He just barely was able to stuff his own fingers in his ears as the horn blared out waking everyone on the island.

Back at Tazuna's house, Inari heard the horn and thought 'So that's what he wanted it for.'

Back with the group, Sasuke and Sakura once again shot up screaming from the sound. (Seriously, you would think that they would have learned to wake up early by now.)

Needles to say, the other three burst into laughter again as Naruto shut the horn off since they wouldn't need a second horn blast.

Sakura and Sasuke looked at the fog horn their cargo short wearing teammate was standing beside before Sasuke screamed "WHERE THE HELL DID YOU GET THAT?"

Naruto chuckled and said "Got it off of one of Gato's ships. I figured the hokage could probably put it to better use than he could. Although it did do a good job of waking you guys up."

Sakura and Sasuke just looked at Naruto like was insane before the comment about the ship caught their attention.

Sakura was the one to speak this time. "Naruto what do you mean by you got it off of a ship? You were with us all day yesterday."

Naruto nodded and said "I was, but my clones weren't."

Sasuke asked "what do you mean? I thought your clone was watching Tazuna?"

Naruto sighed and said "Yeah, 'clone' Sasuke. Seriously, you should know by now that I can create more than just one by now."

"But what was one of your clones doing aboard one of Gato's ships?" Sakura asked but Kakashi cut off any answer that Naruto was about to give.

"That doesn't matter right now Sakura, now you and Sasuke get changed and we will get started."

Once they had changed, Sakura and Sasuke once again put on the chakra weights and staggered at the added weight they were given this morning before gritting their teeth and attempting the obstacle course again. Today would be the first day that they would have a time to try and meet. Naruto once again left a clone with them as he headed to the clearing he had been in yesterday.

Once in the clearing, Naruto breathed in through his nose and nodded when he failed to picked up a recent copy of the smell he had yesterday just before he summoned his clone army.

'Good, he hasn't been here yet. I thought that since he had been here before I got here yesterday that I would have missed him today.' Naruto thought remembering how he had caught the scent of the fake hunter nin in the clearing. He was hopping that the nin would come back today so that he could at least get some information if not get rid of a threat early.

Deciding that there was no point in letting the hunter nin know that he was actually waiting for him, Naruto went to one of the trees in the clearing and laid up against it and set his body in the breathing pattern people take when their sleeping.

Meanwhile, a boy with long black hair and brown eyes was walking down the path. In his arm was a basket and he was humming softly to himself.

When he entered the clearing, he headed to a group of herbs to pick. A bird landed on the boy's shoulders and he smiled at it before it took off.

Following its path with his eyes, the boy suddenly noticed a figure sleeping against a tree on the other side of the clearing. Frowning softly, the boy headed to over to the figure who was sleeping but narrowed his eyes when he saw who it was.

'That's the kid who took out Zabuza.' The boy thought as he knelt down to the left of the blond.

The boy raised his right hand over his throat while thinking 'I should just kill him here. He will only be trouble further on.' The boy then sighed and cursed his kind heart as his hand moved to the boy's shoulder.

Big mistake on his part because as soon as his hand touched the shoulder, he found himself up against the tree with his right arm pinned painfully to his back.

"Word of advice pal." Naruto said as he kept the pressure on the other boy's arm. "You see a headband with a metal plate and a symbol on that plate, then don't try touching the guy wearing it while they sleep. We usually tend to be a bit jumpy when we're out in the field." He then released the pressure and stepped back.

The boy took a step away from the tree as well and turned to the blond while rubbing his right wrist. "I'll keep that in mind. I was just worried that you might catch a cold out here." He said while thinking 'Those were some pretty good reflexes. And I've never seen anyone move as fast from a laying down position.'

Naruto chuckled as he thought 'Sure you were.' He had been able to tell exactly where that hand had been a second before it moved due to wind being his primary element. (If that confuses you then let me explain. Air moves in currents around everything. In this fic, if you train enough in wind manipulation then you can tell where objects are by 'reading' the air currents around you.) He then said "Well, while I appreciate the concern, you don't have to worry about me getting sick out here. I wasn't here very long."

The boy looked at him and asked "So what were you doing out here?"

Naruto shrugged and said "Just taking a quick break from training." (Sort of true. He was going to go back to training after this.)

The boy then said "Training? If that grip of yours is anything to go by then you seem plenty strong enough as it is."

Naruto again shrugged and said "Well yeah, I'm stronger than most people my age, but there is always someone stronger than you out there."

The boy nodded and said "That's true. So tell me, is there anyone who is precious to you who you want to protect with your strength?"

Naruto nodded and said "Yeah, I've got a small group of them. In fact, the reason why I want to become Hokage is so that I can protect all of them."

The boy smiled and said "Well then it sounds like you're on the right track."

Naruto smiled as well before deciding to change the topic. "Well we both know what I'm doing out here, but what are you doing here?"

The boy then looked a little tense for a split second before saying "I'm picking herbs for someone who is important to me. You see he recently got injured so I was gathering herbs to make him medicine."

Naruto nodded and thought 'Must be for Zabuza. Didn't think that the damage to his nervous system was so bad. Most be for that hole I put into his shoulder.'

"Want some help?" He asked.

The boy just smiled again and said "Sure, I'd appreciate that."

The two then gathered the herbs that they needed and when they were done, they headed towards the path the boy went down.

As they got there, the boy said "Thank you for your help. I didn't get your name though."

Naruto chuckled and said "The same could be said for you. But my name is Naruto Uzumaki."

The boy just nodded and said. "Haku"

Naruto nodded and said "Well Haku, it's been nice meeting you. Maybe we'll see each other again. Maybe even tomorrow."

Haku smiled and said "That would be nice."

Naruto began walking before he then turned his head over his shoulder and said something that really threw Haku for a loop. "Tell Zabuza to get better soon and that he should really think about who he's working for."

With that, Naruto took off back to the clearing the others were at speed while Haku just stared and thought 'He knew?'


	17. Call of Duty: End Game

Call of Duty: End Game

Author's notes: Hey guys, couple of things. First off, sorry this is late. Only excuse I can give is that I wanted to read more than write. Second thing, people have commented on this and I have read my previous chapters and noticed that whenever I bold or italicize, the chapter sometimes keeps doing that. Any suggestions? Any input on that will help greatly. As always, R&R is always appreciated. Let's get started.

Forest in the Land of Waves

Naruto was currently running towards the clearing where his teammates were training.

"**Was it really wise to tell him that we knew?"** His father asked as they came into the clearing.

Naruto got a slight frown before responding. 'Truthfully? No clue. I honestly don't know what on earth made me do that. While it would be nice to actually be friends with him, the truth is he will most likely be an enemy. Although if we follow through with our plan that should be a moot point. I'm actually looking forward to finding out if he comes again tomorrow.'

His father nodded before saying **"Well, at least we know that we will most definitely be meeting him in four days. By the way, how long do you plan to keep that little blockade of yours up?"**

He was talking about the line of shadow clones that even now were still in existence forming a line in between the Land of Waves and the main shipping lane next to it. These clones were the real reason Naruto needed so much of his father's chakra. They were spread out the furthest from the original than any of the others and were staying in existence much longer as well.

Naruto considered and said 'At least till we fight Zabuza again. I'm planning on going to Gato's last base on this island and placing a bug on their radio antennae. I'll send what ever info I receive about shipments to them by shadow clone memory. We never know how Gato will change his ship's routes to try and avoid us. Though I am seriously starting to wonder if I should still make him sweat or end it right now. On one hand, it would definitely get rid of the midget quicker. On the other hand, the longer I wait to take out that base, the more ships I can intercept. And not all of those ships are carrying inanimate objects in their cargo holds.' Naruto's tone got very dark toward the end of the last sentence.

Naruto could sense his father's mood darken as well when he said that last sentence.

"**Definitely keep them around then. The more ships we capture the better."**

Naruto nodded before he once again added another ten pounds to each of his weights and shot up the rock climbing wall. He didn't stop running the obstacle course for a full hour and a half leaving his two teammates wondering just what race of super humans he was a descendant of.

During lunch, Naruto left the clearing and headed to the one area he had not stepped foot near. Five minutes of walking out of the clearing he went into enemy territory stealth mode moving fast yet silent. Ten minutes later he came upon the building.

Naruto cocked his head when he caught sight of the strange building. It was a building that was suspended about three stories in the air by ropes to the near trees with ropes also leading to the forest floor to keep it anchored that way as well. It was about seven or eight stories tall with the first story shaped like a wide soup bowl with a large ramp leading to the forest floor and an entrance at the second and third stories leading to platforms in the trees. The rest of the stories were shaped like a cone until it tapered off to a flat top. There were only a few windows in the entire building.

What really got Naruto's attention was the tree that the place had been built around. It was nothing special but the fact that it was sticking through the base with just twenty feet at max on the other side of it was just weird to Naruto who wondered why anyone would even bother building around the tree for that little space. (Check Naruto volume 3 page 19 for the actual picture.)

'What the heck is up with this building?' Naruto thought shaking his head. 'The shape I might see as just being eccentric but hanging it in the air when the ground is just fine and having a tree go through it as well? Who the hell designed this place?'

He sensed his father mentally shrug and sighed while shaking his head at the apparent idiocy of the place.

Shrugging as well, Naruto silently ran up one of the trees that was close to one of the platforms making sure to stay out of sight of any guards who could be on the platform as lookouts. Once he got high enough, he looked around the tree and saw the guard.

'Just one guard for this entrance? You have got to be kidding me! Is Gato asking to be assassinated? Although considering the state of the village I can see why he seems so confident that this place won't be attacked. Would have thought that he would have beefed up security though after what happened yesterday.

Naruto then looked up and his face took a more reflective look.

'Ahh, wait a minute, there's kunai launchers a little bit higher up. And if I'm not mistaken there is a pressure plate right next to the guy. Looks like he steps on the plate and anyone not standing right where he is gets turned into a pincushion. Well this sucks. How the heck am I going to take this guy down without ending up with more holes than a guy who just had fifty acupuncture sessions?'

Naruto then grinned. 'Wait a minute, I'm going about this the wrong way. I don't need to use the bridge to get on the building, I can climb up the underside of that ramp. Though how am I going to get across to it without being seen? I could run there at full speed but even I'm not fast enough to get there without being seen first.' (If you look at the picture, you see that the bridges are actually pretty long and don't actually connect to anything that you see. I'm making my platforms about fifteen hundred yards from the actual building.)

Naruto then smacked his head. 'I'm still going about this the wrong way. All I got to do is use that earth style justu to travel to the ramp. Man, I really need to learn not to over think things.'

Ignoring the chuckling he could hear from the fox, Naruto ran down the tree as quietly as he could. Once he reached the ground, he formed a quick set of hand seals before sinking into the ground. Once he was below the surface, he moved to the bottom of the ramp and came back out crouching. He then placed his hands on the underside of the ramp and pulled his body up to it with chakra before placing his feet and knees against it as well adding chakra there also.

Naruto then quickly crawled up the ramp keeping as close to its surface as possible until he reached the top. When he got there, he stood 'up' and ran to the edge of the building that was on the opposite side of the two platforms. He then headed up the wall and was soon on top of the roof. When he got up there he found exactly what he was hoping was up there: a long range radio antennae.

Acting quickly, Naruto unsealed his spy equipment that he always takes whenever he goes on a mission outside of the village. Never know when you might have to do a bit of spy work to complete the mission. Once he had the proper equipment in place, he quickly resealed everything else and ran back down to the underside of the building. Once there, he made the hand signs for the earth justu again and kicked off of the building diving into the ground like it was water.

One mile back towards the village, Naruto poked his head out of the ground and looked around before his arm appeared and he pushed himself out of the ground and into a sitting position.

'That went rather well.' Naruto thought to himself. 'Now we just have to wait.' He sensed his father nod as he took off back towards the village, but not before setting his radio. He and his father had already agreed that they would take turns listening out for anything that the radio picked up. That way, even if one of them was sleeping, the other could take proper action. In Naruto's case, it was sending the info to his remaining clones. In Kyubi's case, it was to wake his son up so he could send the info.

With that out of the way, Naruto went back to the clearing he met Haku and unsealed one of his instruments. He spent most of the rest of the day there playing various instruments, sometimes by himself, sometimes with his clones.

The next day found Naruto back in the clearing where he had met Haku. He had headed straight there from the old bridge builder's house leaving Sasuke and Sakura to Kakashi's mercy. He was sure his silver haired teacher would come up with an interesting way of waking the two up and didn't need him to create earth changing rooms.

'I wonder if he will even show up. After all, we were enemies that day'

Naruto smiled as he caught a scent on the breeze.

'Well what do you know?' he thought to himself as he turned around and saw Haku standing across the clearing looking uncertain.

Haku didn't know what to think. He had given Zabuza Naruto's message of course but the man had just scoffed at it. But truth be told, he did not think it would be a good idea to go back to the clearing. And yet, he had found himself drawn to the blond who was both his enemy and his friend at the same time. Naruto had known exactly who he was and yet he never once made a move to attack him. He needed to know why.

After a minute of the two looking at each other, Haku finally asked the question that was driving him nuts.

"Why didn't you attack me yesterday?"

Naruto replied with that smile still on his face.

"We were not enemies then. You have the same eyes I used to Haku. I would like to know why. It's the main reason I came back here and I'm glad you also came back. Whether or not we face each other again on the field of battle has no meaning now in my opinion. Can you claim that the same isn't true with you?"

Haku smiled when he realized that he honestly found that the blonde's words were true. They may possibly be enemies in a couple of days again but it did not matter. Haku wanted to learn as much about the puzzle that was standing in front of him as the blond wanted to know about him.

"I'll tell if you tell." Haku said.

Naruto nodded and said "Very well. Although a part of my story is a secret of my village, I will tell you what I can."

The two spent the rest of the morning talking about their past lives.

The next day came and Naruto knew that the day after would be interesting one way or another. He started making plans on attacking Gato's base when the morning came and also set up seal arrays under the bridge which would alert him when two specific chakra signatures were in the immediate area. Unfortunately, he couldn't do much else since it would not make sense booby trapping an area where a group of civvies would be working.

That night after dinner, Naruto took Inari outside to the dock to have a talk.

As they both sat down, Naruto said "Inari, there's something we need to talk about."

Inari looked up to the blond who had helped him come out of his depression and asked "What is it Naruto?"

Naruto seemed to gather his thoughts before saying. "Tomorrow my team may be fighting Zabuza again. I plan on going to Gato's last base earlier in the morning and finishing what I started, but it is possible that he may already have plans in motion. Those plans may include trying to use you and your mother as hostages against us. I will be leaving shadow clones here like usual but I want you to stay on guard for anything."

As Inari listened to Naruto, he grew slightly afraid at the possibility of him and his mother being attacked. However, looking at the blond, he grew determined to do what was necessary and stamped the fear back down.

When Inari nodded, showing he understood what Naruto was saying, he continued "I'm going to give you one of my kunai. Keep it on you at all times but don't advertise it. My clones should be able to handle anything that comes, but if not, use it. Just make sure that you do it in a way that they won't expect. Understood?"

Inari nodded again and Naruto handed a kunai over.

That morning at around five, Naruto slipped out of the house after forming two shadow clones to stay out of the house. He was counting on his seal arrays to tell him if Zabuza and Haku went to the bridge. He wasn't too concerned about them being discovered. He had made it so that his seals wrapped inwards on themselves so that they were no bigger than the ring of a kunai. He had also covered them with small patches of camouflage cloth. Unless you knew exactly what and where to look for, you would not even know they were there.

Five minutes of walking later, Naruto blasted off into the forest not even bothering with his weights as trees became nothing but a blur as he ran towards the base.

'This ends now.' He thought to himself as he sent the mental command to his clones that were still out at sea to begin drawing in the net towards the bridge. If there was going to be a fight with Gato's thugs like he knew might happen, he wanted back up just in case. (Remember, he is a lot more informed about general things than he is in the anime.)

'I just know that Gato is going to betray Zabuza and Haku once they complete their task. I'll just have to make sure that doesn't happen.'

'**Well, with those clones heading back to the bridge, Those thugs we know that will come after them won't stand a chance. But it will take them a while to get back. My chakra in them or not, they are pretty far out. My guess is that they will take at least a couple of hours.'**

Naruto nodded at this and replied 'Hopefully we can catch Gato unaware and prevent the group from even leaving that base. At least we know that this is the only area they will come from.'

He heard his father mentally agreeing as he slowed down before stopping behind the same tree he had first climbed three days ago.

At the base of the tree, Naruto looked up and sniffed the air. 'Huh, same guard. Oh well, doesn't make much difference to me.'

With that thought, Naruto ran up the tree surprising the guard. But before he could call out, Naruto pushed off the tree doing a back flip in midair and landed right on the pressure plate causing all the kunai launchers to activate turning the unfortunate soul into a pincushion.

'**Poor bastard never had a chance.'**

Naruto heard his father's words but could hear amusement in them. Grinning, Naruto jumped over the kunai that was all over the platform to the bridge and shot down it at speed and entered the base.

Unfinished Bridge

Meanwhile, back with the rest of Team 7 and Tazuna, they had just come to the bridge to a sight that left them both confused and slightly scared. On the bridge were several of the workers knocked unconscious. Bits of blood were everywhere although the cuts they were coming from did not look life threatening.

Tazuna ran up to a man when he heard him groan and asked "What happened here?"

The man groaned again before opening his eyes and said "Tazuna? Run. There's a demon here."

"A demon? How true." A voice said as mist started rolling in.

Back With Naruto At Gato's Base

Naruto had absolutely no trouble at the base. How could he when there were only ten people total in that one building.

'Looks like he has already moved on. I'll see if he left anything in the safe and then head to the bridge.' He thought before the seal arrays he had set up flared alerting him that both chakra signatures were at the bridge now.

'Damn, their already there. I guess the safe can wait.' He thought frowning.

Sending a mental inquiry to the clones via shadow clone memory, Naruto learned that his clones were still a good distance away, further than even he was. Deciding to deal with Gato when he showed his cowardly face, Naruto left the base quickly and deactivated his weights as soon as he was outside to increase his speed hoping that Kakashi and the rooks could handle things till he got there.

With the rest of team 7, the outlines of two figures could be seen as the voice came again.

"Hello Kakashi. Tell me, where is that other brat that was with you before? I would like to fight him again and return that kick of his."

As he finished saying this, Zabuza and the missing nin from before had finally come close enough to be recognized. Both rooks to either side of Kakashi tensed up a bit as Kakashi calmly looked on before saying,

"I'm afraid that he has other plans at the moment."

Zabuza just snorted and said. "Fine then, I'll deal with you and those two runts first and take care of him later."

Just as he said this, six water clones suddenly surrounded the group. Sakura and Sasuke jerked in surprise but otherwise kept their battle stances.

Kakashi, who had noticed the clones turned his head to Sasuke and said "Sasuke, if you would please?"

Sasuke nodded while grinning and said "Of course."

Sasuke then vanished while a blur made a five second long circle around the clones causing them to turn back into water. (Naruto could have done it in one. J)

Though he didn't look it, Zabuza was very slightly impressed. "Well brat, looks like you've improved a little. I remember how you and pinkie were trembling last week. Hey Haku, why don't you go and play while I deal with Kakashi."

The now introduced Haku said "very well." before charging.

(Five Minutes Later)

Sasuke was panting hard. He was surrounded by a dome of ice mirrors and he had a good number of senbon needles in his body. He was able to tell that none of them were in vital spots but it pissed him off that they had been able to get there in the first place even with his Sharingan active. He had been able to keep up with Haku fairly easy without it at first, but when those blasted mirrors came up, Haku's speed had increased exponentially.

Haku watched from one of his mirrors as Sasuke started pulling out some of the needles from his arms and legs, wincing as he did so.

"I must admit that I am impressed that you have managed to last this long, but you should just give up now."

Sasuke growled at this and said "Like hell I'm giving up!"

Haku's posture slackened a little like he was sad about something before he straightened back up and said "Very well then."

Haku burst out of the mirror, senbon in hand ready to throw. Halfway to his target though, Haku's face was suddenly introduced to a foot that sent him smashing through his mirror, causing all the other mirrors to break as well, and landing in a heap about fifteen feet away.

Sasuke breathed out a sigh of relief when he saw who had come help him. Standing in front of him with his foot coming down from the round house kick he just gave his newest friend was Naruto.

Naruto turned around and offered his hand to Sasuke while asking "You all right there Sasuke?"

"Yeah." Was Sasuke's reply as he gladly took the offered hand to help him stand up. "I was doing all right till those mirrors came up. Once they did, he got too fast for me, even with the Sharingan."

Naruto nodded and said "So I saw just now. Don't take it personally but always remember that there is always someone who is faster or stronger than you."

Seeing Sasuke nod in return he continued "Head back over to Sakura Sasuke. I'll handle the rest."

Sasuke nodded again while Naruto turned back to his friend and started walking.

"I'm disappointed in you Haku." He said. "I would have thought that you and Zabuza would have known better."

Before Haku could say anything, Zabuza came flying out of the mist and landed a short distance away from Haku. As he was standing up, a cry of "Lightning Style: Lightning Hound Justu!" was heard as a canine made out of electricity suddenly shot out of the mist body slamming Zabuza and sending him right next to Haku as he started twitching a little from the electric discharge from the attack. The mist then lifted showing Kakashi ready for another round.

(With Kakashi Just before Naruto showed up.)

Kakashi was standing in the mist calmly waiting for Zabuza to make another move. He had raised this mist to counter Kakashi's Sharingan but had not realized that Kakashi could smell him. So now the two were trading blows whenever Zabuza got close.

All of a sudden, more water clones surrounded Kakashi, but he destroyed them even easier than Sasuke had. Right after, a cry of "Water Style: Water Dragon Justu!" was heard and the dragon head made of water slammed down on the bridge, just barely missing him as he jumped to the side.

All of a sudden, a ball of water quickly rose up around him trapping him with Zabuza's hand keeping it together.

Zabuza looked at him with an evil gleam in his eye and said. "You fell right for my trap Kakashi. Did you really think that those clones and the dragon were supposed to hurt you? I've got you right where I want you now."

Kakashi just looked at Zabuza before smugly saying "Actually Zabuza, it's I who have you right where I want you."

Before Zabuza could question the statement, Kakashi used his lightning manipulation to pour electricity out of his body which traveled through the water straight into Zabuza's arm. Zabuza tried to pull away but still got fried anyhow. (Seriously, why didn't Kakashi do this in the manga? He knows elemental manipulation so it should have been easy. Also, his body is used to lightning chakra since it's his primary element so it wouldn't affect him as much as Zabuza.)

As he pulled away from the ball of water, it collapsed and Kakashi stepped to close the distance before kicking the still stunned mist nin out of the mist towards where Sasuke was. Intent to finish this quickly and help out his student, the silver haired Jounin started going through hand signs before calling out his technique.

"Lightning Style: Lightning Hound Justu!"

Throwing his right fist in front of him like he was punching someone, a canine made out of electricity shot off and hit Zabuza right in the chest causing the mist to lift.

What Kakashi saw when the mist lifted made him smile. Sasuke was standing next to Sakura as she was taking care of some of his injuries while his other student was standing in front of the two mist nins.

'So he finally got here.' Kakashi thought to himself.

Before anyone could say anything however they heard. "So once again you failed. Maybe we should change your name to baby of the mist."

Everyone looked past Kakashi to see Gato standing with over two hundred thugs behind him.

Zabuza tried to raise himself up as he asked. "Gato! What is the meaning of this?"

Gato got an evil grin on his face and said "There has been a change of plans. And I'm afraid your not in them. You ninja are too expensive so I've got these thugs at a fraction of the cost to take care of you and the bridge builder."

Naruto started walking towards his teacher past the two nins and said. "So you finally show your face huh Gato? It's about time I finished what I started a week ago."

At this, Sakura and Sasuke got confused looks on their faces wondering just what the hell their whiskered teammate was talking about.

Gato suddenly got scared though. "You're the one who took out my bases?" He asked with his eyes widening.

"Yup."

"Men! Kill that brat and everyone else! Whoever brings me his head will get a fifty percent bonus!"

All the thugs roared in approval and started to charge.

Started being the key word because Naruto suddenly sensed the fifty clones that were the last remaining clones from the blockade coming in fast. A second later, the clones appeared in the air coming down on the thugs and tore through them as they landed.

It was over in five seconds leaving Gato even more afraid as one of the clones turned to the original and said. "Blockade task force reporting in sir! All of Gato's ships in the shipping lanes have been captured by the rest of the group and brought to the harbors. They are being unloaded as we speak."

Naruto nodded and said "Well done. Go ahead and dispel yourselves." A chorus of roger's followed as the clones dispelled. Taking a second to assimilate the memories, Naruto then turned towards where Gato was trying to back away without being noticed.

All of a sudden, Naruto had vanished. Gato got real scared. That fear suddenly turned into terror as he bumped into someone. Spinning around, his eyes widened even more as he saw the blond standing in front of him with an evil grin on his face.

"And where do you think you're going hm?" Naruto asked, his grin getting bigger.

"P-Please! H-Have mercy!" Gato cried. "I'll give you anything! Anything you want!"

Naruto just said "I'm not the one you should beg mercy from. Right guys?" The last part was shouted to the other side of the bridge where a roar was heard. Standing at the other side was Inari with the two shadow clones and the rest of the villagers who were shouting at Gato. Each villager had a weapon of some sort.

"Yeah! Your time is up Gato!"

"We're free now! It's time for you to pay for your crimes!"

These and more were repeated by most of the villagers as Gato started shaking in fear. All of a sudden, Naruto grabbed the midget by his collar and threw him towards the villagers. He landed at their feet in a heap and the villagers closed in on him beating him into unconsciousness before dragging him off.

Naruto walked up to Kakashi as the villagers were dragging the man away and said "Well this has certainly been an interesting mission."

Kakashi nodded as the two of them started walking towards the mist nins who had not gotten up from where they were sitting.

Once they were next to them, Naruto asked "So what now Zabuza?"

Zabuza shrugged and said "Not sure. My contract with Gato is obviously over now. I don't know what I will do now though."

Naruto nodded before saying. "Why don't you stay here for a while until the village is back on its feet. I have enough money from all the missions I've done to pay you for it if that's what it takes."

Zabuza chuckled and said "That's not a bad idea, but keep your money kid. Who knows, me and Haku might even stay longer than that."

Haku nodded showing he liked that idea and the group headed back to the bridge builder and the two rooks. When they met up, they followed the villagers back into the village.

That night, the villagers celebrated their freedom. It was a party like nothing Team 7 had seen before. As they were celebrating in the village center, Gato was gagged and tied to a cross that had been built. He was hanging about five feet over everyone's heads and he would occasionally be hit by a rotten fruit or bottle. It was decided that Team 7 would take him to the leaf village for punishment. Naruto planned to seal him into a stasis seal in the morning but left him there for now so the villagers could continue.

Naruto had also gone back to the last base and brought everything back to the village. This included the deeds to all of Gato's land in the land of waves as well as other countries and a ton of money and valuable objects such as gems and even a few bars of gold. With that much money going back into the village, the mission was easily paid for along with a bonus for each team member.

The next morning came around with a bunch of shadow clones helping on the bridge along with the rest of team 7 and the villagers. Thanks to the clones, the bridge was completed by night fall. (Don't forget, Naruto has had clones there all week working.)

The next morning, a large group of the villagers were grouped around the wave side of the bridge to see the group off.

"Thank you for everything you've done for us you guys. You've done a super job." Tazuna said while shaking their hands.

"No problem. Besides we couldn't just leave this land like it was."

"You call launching an invasion on all the islands and maintaining a blockade for the better part of a week 'no problem?'" Kakashi asked his student who had the decency to blush while scratching the back of his head.

Sasuke and Sakura decided that they really did not want to know about what Naruto did when he wasn't training with them anymore. It would allow them not to think he was a half god or something which was just crazy.

Tazuna just chuckled and said "Have a safe trip you guys."

Inari stepped up and hugged Naruto and said "Thanks Naruto."

Naruto smiled and ruffled Inari's hair and said "You're welcome Inari."

With that, Team 7 turned and started walking down the bridge back to their own village.

"You know, we still haven't named the bridge yet." Tsunami said.

"You're right." Tazuna said. "But I think I know the perfect name for it. The Great Naruto Bridge."

The rest of the villagers quickly agreed as the team was soon out of sight.


	18. Elemental Manipulation

Elemental Manipulation

Team 7 passed through the main gate of the Hidden Leaf Village the afternoon of the same day that they left Wave. Thanks to their training from the past week, Sasuke and Sakura were able to keep up with a moderately paced Naruto and Kakashi allowing them to make good time back to the village.

Turning to his youngest students, Kakashi said "Good job on the mission you two. Take tomorrow off and meet at the training grounds same time as usual in two days." He waited for them to nod before turning to the only student from his former team and said "Naruto, I would like you to come with me to report on the mission."

Naruto nodded and said "Sure." before the two took to the roofs towards the Hokage tower.

As the two rooks watched Sakura turned to Sasuke and said "I don't know about you, but I'm going home. I need a shower and really want to sleep in my own bed again."

Sasuke nodded in agreement and the two split up and headed to their respective houses. It was only as he entered the Uchiha district that Sasuke realized Sakura had not asked for a date before they split up. He just chalked it up to her being too tired though.

By this time, Naruto and Kakashi had entered the tower and were now in front of the door to the room where low rank missions were normally turned in. (Gotta remember it started out c-rank.)

Walking in, they noticed that once again Naruto's favorite teachers were in the room as well as the Hokage. Besides these three, no one else was in the room. Naruto was glad because this meant he could tell the teachers and Hokage about his personal crusade without any one else learning about it.

The three shinobi behind the desks looked up and the hokage smiled before saying "Ah, Kakashi, Naruto. Good to see you back. I take it the mission went well?"

Kakashi chuckled before saying "As well as expected given the complications and solo mission Naruto here gave himself." This last statement was followed by Naruto nervously chuckling as he rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment.

Sarutobi, Mizuki, and Iruka each raised their eyebrows at what the silver-haired Jounin said, especially about Naruto giving himself a solo mission.

Sarutobi then said "Care to explain that?"

Before Naruto could say anything, Kakashi went on. "Well sir, turns out that Tazuna was building the bridge to get his country out from under Gato's thumb. Gato didn't want this so sent ninja after him. While everything will be in my report, the short version is they came, they saw, and Naruto and I kicked their rear ends back to the Mist they came from. (The hokage heard the emphasis put on mist but did not comment on it.) Also, Naruto took it upon himself to royally screw Gato over by launching a shadow clone invasion on the islands and raising a week long blockade to attack all of his warehouses and ships."

The three people who were not on the mission looked at Naruto while their jaws dropped to the desks.

Seeing this, Naruto just shrugged and said "Is it really that hard to believe that I created an army of shadow clones? I could make two thousand while still back at the academy after all. It really wasn't that hard making five thousand to handle everything."

The hokage just shook his head at this and said. "I am not even going to ask Naruto. Still since you decided to have your own personal crusade, I am going to have to ask you to write up a mission report about this."

Seeing Naruto nod, he continued. "Was there anything else you would like to point out?"

Kakashi nodded and said. "Actually there is. Thanks to Naruto, the villagers were able to catch Gato. It was decided that we would bring him here to face trial. Naruto sealed him with a stasis scroll for transit."

At this, Naruto pulled out the correct scroll and walked over to the hokage's desk before placing it down and walking back to his teacher to once again face the group.

The hokage sighed before saying "Very well, I will have someone 'escort' Gato to a holding cell. We can work out the particulars of his trial later. You two are dismissed, have your written reports in by tomorrow."

Naruto and Kakashi nodded and the Jounin turned around and started walking out before he heard his student speak up again.

"By the way old man, before I forget, I have something that might interest you. I got this off of one of Gato's ships and I think you could probably find a use for it."

As soon as he said this, Naruto pulled out another storage scroll and poured some chakra into it. With a poof of smoke the foghorn came into existence inside the room. Mizuki, Iruka, and Sarutobi's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. Naruto and Kakashi chuckled before both headed out of the room to get some ramen together.

The day after was used by the members of team 7 differently.

Naruto woke up at his usual time and did his routine warm up exercises at his apartment (Just so you know, he was able to greatly improve it with the money from d-ranks.) He then spent the rest of the morning after breakfast writing out a detailed report on what he did during his little crusade against Gato. He included a map of the country showing where all the bases and ships' former locations were before he tore through them all. He included everything that he did including the tavern fight. The only thing he did not include was the fact that he had used his father's chakra to maintain the clones. He thought that the council would not approve of that little fact and he and the kyubi were not looking forward to the hornets nest that would cause if they did find out about it. He would tell the old man about it in person though so that he would know how he was capable of maintaining clones from such a large distance. (Remember, Shadow clones stay indefinitely so long as they don't use up all of their chakra, but they are distance oriented as well to a degree. The group wasn't too far out from the leaf village when they encountered the demon brothers since they were traveling at a civilian pace. Also, the blockade was a good distance from the original..)

After he finished writing his report, Naruto headed to the tower and gave his report to the old man and explained how he maintained the blockade. Sarutobi was impressed with how much of the fox's chakra Naruto could control so far and stated that the mission would be counted as a low S-rank due to how much damage Naruto had done to Gato's "business." Naruto didn't think it was that high of a mission but accepted the rank anyway.

Afterwards, he had a quick lunch at Ichiraku's before heading to his team's training ground and decided to have a one man war game. He made six teams of four clones with another team with him in it and had the clones henge themselves so that each team had a differently themed clone. After that was done, the seven teams started playing a ninja style ctf game. (Just like civi style except for the fact that the clones were aiming to dispel instead of capture. Think call of duty style ctf, only with justu instead of guns.)

After the ctf game was finally over, Naruto left the training ground. He chuckled as he saw a few of the Genin teams that had been attracted to the area due to all the noise staring at all the smoking craters he left in the area and decided to go talk to Iruka and Mizuki at the academy.

He was able to get there just as the academy let out. He smiled to himself as he saw Konohamaru and his friends running off to pull off a prank on some poor villager. Walking into the academy, he met up with his former senseis and told them about what had happened at Wave. Suffice to say that their jaws dropped numerous times as he explained how he had became Gato's worst nightmare. After they were done talking, the trio went to Ichiraku's and continued talking well through the evening.

That night, Naruto returned to his apartment content with how the day went and got ready for bed. But when he went to bed, instead of going totally asleep right away, he spent a few hours in his mindscape talking with his father and having a quick spar.

Sakura had woken up that morning and had decided on going to the library to pick out a few books on field first aid since Naruto had told her a week before the wave mission that while the rest of the members of team 7 were more heavy assault oriented, she would be more useful as a back up support unit to help out with damage control. He had also told her that with her near perfect chakra control she could most likely do a few low level medical justus rather well. Taking what the blond said to heart, Sakura spent most of the day at the library looking through what she could.

Sasuke had woken up at his usual time and did his morning wake up routine before having breakfast. Afterwards, he headed to one of the training grounds in the Uchiha district. When he got there, he did a number of warm up drills that the two vets on his team had drilled into him before going through the list of justus that he knew. After he was finished with those, He headed back to his house and began looking through his clan scrolls for the rest of the day.

As for Kakashi, once he had his report in, he spent the day with his nose in his favorite book. (No surprise there.)

The next day, Team 7 met at their training grounds at the usual time. Sakura and Sasuke met up at the entrance to the training ground to see a rather amazing sight. Bolts of lighting clashed with howling wind streams as water streams hit flying chunks of earth. Fireballs that were flung from the hands were constantly being redirected with flame coated hands as if they were nothing but paper shuriken or impacting small floating pockets of water that moved to meet them. In a couple of words, it was pure chaos.

What the two rookies were currently watching was a large number of Naruto's clones and the original having a battle royal with Kakashi watching from underneath a near by tree. But what really got the two was the fact that not once did they see any hand sign or hear any techniques being called out.

The virtual war ended as the original Naruto jumped into the air constantly spinning as a large stream of air came from his left hand and fire came out of his right. The two rooks' eyes bulged out as the fire hit the air stream, turning it into a virtual fire maelstorm, completely eradicating everything in its path. Naruto ended his spin and landed in the eye of the miniature fire hurricane that he had created. When he landed, he focused on the air around him and condensed the hurricane into a tornado around his body before shooting the entire thing up above his body past the height of the trees in the area and sent it curving into the nearby lake. A large plume of steam could be seen over the trees as Sasuke and Sakura stood staring at Naruto in dumbfounded shock.

Naruto noticed the looks he was getting and grinning said "Pretty cool huh? Imagine how powerful your justus can be if you can do this without using hand signs to give it even more focus."

Sasuke was the first to come out of his shock. "So we're finally going to learn elemental manipulation?"

Naruto grinned again and said "Yup. But I've got to warn you right here and now. This stuff is hard. It could take years maybe, but the end results are worth it. So, you two ready?"

Seeing the two nod, Kakashi walked over and said "Then let's get started."

(Time Skip: Three Weeks Later)

It had been three weeks since Naruto had shown Sasuke and Sakura some of the possibilities of manipulating their two elements. The two rooks had made good progress on claiming their primary elements as their own. Sasuke was just at the last stretch of the second phase of fire manipulation while Sakura was right behind him with water manipulation. Naruto was impressed with both of them since he had expected them to take much longer to learn elemental manipulation. Especially since they were keeping up with the physical training as well.

Naruto and Sakura were currently standing near the marketing district next to a fence talking. Kakashi had met the team at the training grounds and told them to take the rest of the day off. Sasuke of course had left right after while once again rejecting Sakura after she asked for a date. Naruto had decided to try and lift her spirits and offered to get lunch together. Sakura had agreed and afterwards, they had walked around a bit while Naruto talked about the various ways a ninja could put elemental manipulation to use, including combat strategies and getting from place to place faster depending on the environment. (If I lost you there, then think of it like this. If you have a fire element, and your trying to get through a fire to help someone, you could literally open a corridor through the flames.)

Currently, Naruto and Sakura had switched from tactics to general topics switching from one topic to another as they just relaxed. All the while a slow but constant breeze blew past the fence they were standing in front of.

Naruto's lips twitched as he felt the wind around him die but saw Sakura's hair still blowing. Chuckling to himself he said "You can come out now Konohamaru."

Sakura looked at him confused until three heads popped up at the top of the fence startling her.

The kid in the middle asked "How did you know we were here boss? We did everything you taught us to do when sneaking up on someone."

Naruto smiled and said "While it is true you guys properly masked your chakra and scent, you forgot one key thing."

Konohamaru and his friends got confused looks as he asked "What's that boss?"

Naruto asked "What is my primary element?"

The other boy, Undon, said "Uh, wind right?"

Naruto nodded and said "And which way is the wind blowing?"

The girl, Moegi, said "Towards you."

All three kids eyes widened when they realized their mistake.

Naruto chuckled and said "Exactly. Always take into account weather conditions, especially wind currents."

Konohamaru said "Don't worry boss, we will. And next time we'll definitely be able to sneak up on you." The other two nodded at this and all three jumped down next to the older pair.

Konohamaru turned to face Sakura and asked "Hey boss, who's this?"

Naruto grinned and said "That's right, you guys have never met before. Sakura, allow me to introduce you to the Konohamaru corps. This is Konohamaru, Undon, and Moegi. I sometimes play a more advanced form of the ninja game with them to help them become better at the academy and sometimes teach them chakra control techniques. Guys, I would like you to meet one of my new teammates Sakura Haruno."

Konohamaru nodded and said "So you're Heza's replacement huh? Nice to meet you."

Sakura smiled and said "It's nice to meet you as well. But what did Naruto mean by advance form of the ninja game? It seems kind of silly for a ninja to play ninja doesn't it?"

Moegi was the one to answer "Not with the boss playing it's not. He always makes it interesting by adding lessons into the actual game. It's way better than learning survival at the academy."

Naruto chuckled and said "I explain different survival techniques as well as how to properly throw kunai and shuriken. I've also taught them how the tree climbing exercise a couple of weeks ago. Speaking of which, how are you three doing on that?"

Konohamaru said "we already reached the top when running boss, though we can only get a quarter the way up when walking."

Naruto was impressed. "That's great guys. I was expecting it to take you guys a lot longer to reach the top than that. You keep this up and it won't be long till I can teach you the water walking exercise."

The three kids' eyes lit up as Undon asked "Seriously?"

Naruto grinned and said "Yup."

The three cheered before saying bye before running away planning on doing a prank. Naruto just chuckled while Sakura smiled at the scene.

They watched the three turn around a corner and were about to start talking again when they heard Konohamaru shout out. Naruto was off like a rocket running to the corner with Sakura trying her best to keep up. Reaching the corner, they saw Konohamaru being held by his shirt collar by the right hand of a Sand shinobi in a black cat suit and war paint with something wrapped in bandages on his back. Standing next to them was a blond haired Sand Kunoichi with a giant battle fan strapped to her back. Moegi and Undon were closer to Naruto and Sakura trying to get the shinobi to put their friend down but weren't having much luck.

Naruto took this all in in a flash, going instantly into full mission mode. After the split second it took for him to analyze the situation, Naruto took proper action.

"Oi! Leave him alone pal. If you don't put him down right this instant, I'm going to introduce you to the concrete."

The Sand shinobi just looked at Naruto and said with a snort "Oh please, what is a wimp like you going to do huh?"

Sakura and Sasuke, who happened to be sitting in a tree nearby had the same thought 'He's dead.'

Naruto grinned and said "This" before following through with his statement.

Naruto moved at such high speeds it looked like he teleported. He vanished from his spot only to appear parallel to the ground with his right foot in the Sand ninja's face with his left hand over the hand holding Konohamaru pulling it straight dislocating it. The pain on his wrist and shoulder forced the Sand shinobi to release Konohamaru. Grabbing the kid with his right hand, Naruto pushed off with his foot sending the guy flying. He back flipped once and landed in a crouch as he set Konohamaru down before taking off back to the Sand nin who was still in the air parallel with the ground. Getting to the left side of the nin and facing his head, Naruto slammed his left elbow into his opponent's stomach while bending his knees quickly dropping into a crouching position while slamming the Sand nin's back into the concrete. Time from start to finish: one point five seconds.

Everyone else who watched were amazed. To them, it looked like Naruto had just vanished and then he and the Sand nin were moved a few feet away from Konohamaru with Naruto looking down at his opponent with a look that said "Get up and you'll regret it."

Naruto's actions were received by various responses.

Sakura and Sasuke were both glad that Naruto was on their side. This was just one more thing that proved to them that you did not want Naruto as an enemy. Sasuke was a bit upset that he couldn't keep up with the speed though.

Konohamaru's group was awe-struck. Naruto had never shown them how fast he actually was and they were amazed at what the blond could do.

The Sand kunoichi was just plain scared. She didn't even see him move and there was actually cracks coming from the concrete where her teammate was laying.

The Sand shinobi was just in pain, plain and simple.

And another Sand shinobi with red hair who was on the other side of the tree Sasuke was in hiding his presence narrowed his eyes slightly at the display of speed and power.

After a second of looking at his opponent, Naruto pushed off from his crouching position doing a few back flips until he was close to Konohamaru, doing a no handed back flip for his last one, he landed in a Taijustu stance ready to fight again.

Not even looking at the tree where he sensed Sasuke and the other presence he said "I know you're there pal. How long do you plan on hanging on that tree like a bat? "

Sakura and Sasuke started, looking at where the third Sand shinobi was. Sasuke was tense. 'I didn't even sense him.'

The other two Sand ninja instantly got nervous. The ninja on the ground started shakily getting up and said "Uh, hi Gaara, what are you doing here?"

The now introduced Gaara narrowed his eyes and said "Kankuro, knock it off."

"B-but Gaara, he started it." Kankuro looked like he was getting really nervous, bordering on fight or flee action. And by the looks of things, it was going to be flee.

Naruto narrowed his eyes at the exchange. Something felt off about this. There was something familiar about the red head that he couldn't quite place.

Gaara narrowed his eyes even further and said "Shut up. You are a disgrace to our village. If you don't behave I'll kill you."

Kankuro gulped and said "Yes Gaara."

Gaara performed a body flicker technique to stand next to teammates. But unlike the normal poof of smoke, his technique was a swirling of sand.

Naruto's eyes widened when he saw this. 'He uses sand, and this chakra…Father, is he?'

"**No doubt about it. I smell tanuki. Be careful son, this boy is a jinchurikki just like you. And not just any jinchuriki either. He has the Ichibi sealed in him. That raccoon is one crazy psychopath."**

Naruto narrowed his eyes as he heard what his father was telling him.

Gaara noticed this misinterpreting the look said "Forgive my teammate's behavior. If you will excuse us, we will be on our way."

Naruto said "Sure just keep an eye on those two."

Gaara nodded and said "Of course. Kankuro, Temari, lets go."

Kankuro and the newly introduced Temari nodded and the three turned around and started walking away.

Konohamaru's group also left talking about how cool their boss was and how they wanted to be just like him.

Naruto saw that Sakura had walked closer and that Sasuke had dropped down beside them as well. When Sakura was about to ask the Sand ninja something, Naruto held up his hand stopping her.

Seeing her confused look and having a good idea what she wanted to know, he explained "To answer your question Sakura, they are most likely here for the chunnin exams. I saw the hawk over our training grounds, calling Kakashi into a meeting with the rest of the Jounin. It was most likely a meeting for team senseis to nominate their teams if they think their ready."

Before either Sakura or Sasuke could comment on this, a small pug dog wearing a leaf headband appeared in a poof of smoke surprising the two rooks.

Turning to Naruto it said "Naruto, Kakashi wants you and the rest of team 7 to meet him at the bridge."

Naruto nodded and said "Thanks Pakkun, we'll be there shortly."

Pakkun gave a salute with his paw and then vanished in a poof of smoke.

"Wh-what was that?" Sakura asked, a little freaked out by the sight of a talking dog.

"Summoning animal." Naruto said, as he started heading towards the bridge that the old team 7 would sometimes meet at. (Same bridge as the anime)

Sakura and Sasuke followed but the two were still confused. "Summoning Animal?" Sakura asked, clearly not understanding.

Naruto nodded and said "Yeah, they're creatures who have a special contract. If you sign the contract with your blood, you can summon them with a small payment of blood and a certain amount of chakra. The more chakra, the bigger the summon. Their real useful as scouts, messengers, or even helping out in battle depending on which one you summon. The only problem is that the contracts are really rare. They usually stay within a clan. I got mine due to certain circumstances which you don't need to know about for right now though. Kakashi-sensei has the contract with the dogs while I've got one with the foxes. Kakashi-sensei once told me that Gai-sensei has one with the tortoises, but I've never seen him summon one before."

Sasuke decided to ask the next question. "Do you know if there are any other people with a contract in the village?"

Naruto nodded and said "Yeah, I met her during my academy years when me and Mizuki-sensei used to use her favorite training ground. Her name's Anko Mitarashi, and she's got one with the snakes. I'm sure that there are a few others. I know for a fact that each of the three Sannin has one of their own, but they usually aren't in the village."

"I see." Sasuke said. 'Maybe I should try asking Kakashi-sensei to sign his contract or find someone else in the village. It would be good to be able to summon something to help me fight HIM.'

It wasn't long before the three reached the bridge. They saw Kakashi leaning with his back against one of the rails looking down the channel the bridge crossed.

Sensing their presence, Kakashi looked up at them and raised a hand before saying "Yo."

Naruto nodded towards him and leaned against the opposite rail facing his teacher. Sakura and Sasuke took opposite sides of him and all three waited for their teacher to tell them why they were here.

Kakashi decided to get straight to the point. Pulling out three pieces of paper from his pants pocket he walked over and handed them to his students as he said "I've decided to give you guys a shot at the Chunnin exams that are coming up. They will be in two days at the academy at nine in room 301. If you wish to take them, fill out those forms and don't be late. I am sure you will do fine, especially you Naruto. As for you Sakura and Sasuke, make sure to listen to Naruto. He has more experience than you do and I know that he will lead you two to victory. You guys have the rest of the time till the exams off. If you want some extra training, fell free to come find me. I will either be at the Jounin lodge or our training grounds."

The three Genin nodded to their teacher. Afterwards, the two rooks went their separate ways. Naruto stayed behind for a minute. Looking up at his teacher he asked "Do you think we're really ready for this?"

Kakashi eye smiled at his favorite student and said "I do. I know you guys will do well. Keep them out of trouble Naruto."

Naruto nodded and the two split up as well.

(Time Skip: Two Days Later)

Naruto and the rooks were currently walking towards the academy. All three of them were excited to try and climb up the ladder in rank. Sakura and Sasuke more than Naruto who has known for a long time that even if you stayed a Genin for the rest of your life you could eventually take on a Jounin. He should know too, After all, he and Kakashi had their own personal fourth shinobi war every time they got serious in their training or really went at it with their spars with the so called handsome beast duo.

Entering the academy, they quickly climbed the steps up. When they reached the second floor however, they saw a group of people standing around a door with the number 301 over it. Naruto frowned and placed a hand on both of his teammates wrists. Tapping out in battle code, he told his two teammates to not say a word about the obvious genjustu explaining that if even he could detect it with his horrid abilities Genjustu wise, these guys were no where near ready for the test. Seeing the two nod, he kept walking.

However, when the group got to the next staircase, they found a certain Hyuga looking down at them with his arms crossed on the next landing.

The Hyuga had a smug look on his face as he looked at Naruto. "So Uzumaki, you are not too hopeless to actually fall for that Genjustu. Still, you cannot expect to pass these exams. A failure will always be a failure. Nothing more, nothing less. You cannot change your fate."

Sakura and Sasuke were wondering what this Hyuga was talking about since they knew for a fact that even though Naruto was only one year older than them, he could probably take on just about every Jounin in this village.

Naruto just rolled his eyes as he and his team kept walking up the stairs. Once he reached the landing he kept walking without saying a word, which really pissed the Hyuga off.

"What do you hope to accomplish Uzumaki? Surely you must realize that it is your fate to fail?"

Naruto kept walking but said over his shoulder "You should know by now Neji that I don't believe in fate."

Neji frowned but didn't say anything, just watched the blond and his teammates continue walking.

'Fool.'

Back with Naruto and his teammates, Sakura once again let her curiosity get the better of her.

"Naruto who was that and what did he mean by calling you a failure?"

Naruto sighed and said "That was Neji, he used to be my classmate. Due to certain parts of his past, he's become a bit fatalistic. As for the failure part, remember how I said I had too much chakra for regular clones?"

Seeing both nod he continued "Well you see, before Mizuki-sensei and Iruka-sensei taught me how to make shadow clones, I was considered the dead last because other teachers refused to teach me anything."

Sakura and Sasuke were shocked. This time it was Sasuke who spoke up trying to figure out why a teacher would refuse to teach a student.

"Why didn't they want to teach you anything?"

Naruto sighed again and said "Because they were fools who believed that since I was the only one born on the day of the Kyubi attack I was the perfect scapegoat for all their pain and hate. This whole village is full of people who could not let go of the past. Fortunately that has begun to change in the past few years."

Sasuke and Sakura grew quite remembering Naruto's words that day on the roof of the academy when they first met.

Finally reaching their destination, they saw Kakashi leaning against the wall in front of the double doors to the classroom.

Seeing him there, Sakura asked "Kakashi-sensei, what are you doing here?"

Said cyclops raised a hand in greeting and said "To make sure all three of you came since the exams must be done in teams of three. I knew you all would come though. Mainly I'm here to wish you luck. Oh and Naruto, try not to go overboard in there."

Naruto chuckled and said "Don't worry Kakashi-sensei, I won't."

Kakashi nodded and left while the other three passed through the door.

Author's Notes: Hey guys, quick note. I probably won't have next chapter up till next weekend since school is taking a lot more time than I originally thought, so no more early updates setting the standard. However, I asked one of my readers if I should have an omake of Naruto first meeting Konohamaru and he agreed. Expect that in a day or two. See you then.


	19. Omake

Omake: The Hokages' Relatives Meet

Author's Notes: Hey guys, decided to do this little Omake so that you guys can see what happened when Naruto met up with Konohamaru the first time. Enjoy

Hidden Leaf Village, Top of Hokage Tower, Day After Graduation

A man was currently standing behind a camera set up on a tripod looking at an unusual scene.

"Are you sure this is how you want it?" The man asked his current subject.

"Yeah, this is really cool."

The man shrugged. He had to admit that it was a cool shot.

"Very well then, on three. One…two…three."

The camera flashed and the other person dropped his stance.

"Thanks. Hey do you mind taking another one? I've always wanted to see how something would look, but I never got around to taking a picture of it."

The man just shrugged and said "Sure, why not?"

"Great! This is going to be so cool! Shadow Clone Justu!"

The man stared at the new sight and had to admit that it definitely looked cool.

One Hour Later Main Registration Office

The hokage was sitting behind a desk looking at the registration form that one of his recently graduated ninja had brought in.

Sarutobi frowned "Do you honestly expect me to approve of this picture Naruto?"

Said blond was in a chair facing the desk. He frowned a little before saying "What's wrong with it old man? You gotta admit, not only does it show that I'm actually a ninja, it's really cool."

The old leader had to agree on that one. The picture really showed that the blond knew a thing about being 'cool'. The picture was a waist up shot of Naruto and a shadow clone of his. The two blonds were standing at a forty five degree angle with their shoulders facing the camera touching. You could see both boys' entire chest and face. Both shinobi had their headband proudly displayed on their forehead. The blond on the right had his left hand next to his right shoulder with a shuriken in hand like he was about to throw it. The blond on the left had his right hand next to his left shoulder with a kunai in a reverse grip with his pointer finger in the ring. Both boys had identical smirks on their faces showing that they knew exactly how to handle themselves. Their eyes held a look that said that that no matter who you were, they would make sure you knew it would be a bad idea to take them on, even if you could beat them. To describe what the old man looking at in a word would be confidence. Pure confidence. And he knew that Naruto had a right to display that.

The old man sighed "Very well. At least you didn't wear war paint or anything else silly like that. Though it wouldn't have surprised me." He followed word with action as he stamped approved on the paper.

The blond chuckled at that. "Yeah, to be honest, I thought about it, but that would have been a bit overboard for something like this. Still, if you think that picture's cool, you should see the other one I took."

The old man rose and eyebrow. 'I just know I'm going to regret this.' He thought before saying "And what might that picture look like?"

Naruto grinned and took a sealing scroll out of one of the pockets in his cargo shorts. Pumping some chakra into the scroll, a 24 by 12 inch portrait suddenly appeared. Sarutobi's eye brow rose again as Naruto handed him the portrait. What he saw, brought a smile to his lips.

Naruto was kneeling in the center of the picture surrounded by nine shadow clones arranged in a group with two kneeling to his right and three more on his left with the last four standing behind him. The kneeling clones each had their hands set in the final hand sign of an elemental justu starting from wind and going up the elemental circle ending with lighting on the end. The four clones standing in the back each had a different weapon in their hands. The one on the left held two kunai in a reverse grip with his hands crossed with them touching his shoulders. The next clone to the right held a bo staff in the general guard position. The next clone over held a sword angled to the camera in a standard one handed ready position with the flat side facing the camera. And finally, the last clone on the far right held two shuriken much the same way that the first clone held his kunai. All of the clones and the original had big smiles on their faces. The Hokage Monument could be seen in the background. It looked like all of the Hokages, both past and present, were looking down on the group in approval. (That would be so cool if someone could actually draw that.)

The old man chuckled "You're right Naruto, this is an impressive picture. Take good care of it."

Naruto nodded and said "I will." Before taking it back.

All of a sudden, Naruto sensed a very small chakra presence behind the door to the room. He narrowed his eyes as he then felt a very weak killing intent. Glancing to his leader and grandfather figure, he noticed that the old man had obviously picked up on it as well. Seeing his leader, Naruto grew confused. Instead of looking like he took the incoming threat seriously, the veteran ninja just looked resigned to his fate.

He soon understood why when a kid burst through the door running at the leader with a shuriken held haphazardly in his hand shouting out "On guard old man! Today is the day I finally defeat you! Wuah!"

That was as far as the kid got before he suddenly tripped. The old man sighed while shaking his head a little at the sight. Naruto just raised an eyebrow thinking that the kid was lucky he didn't hurt himself with the way he had been holding that shuriken.

The kid slowly got to his feet while saying "Ouch, oh man what happened?"

The kid looked up at Naruto who hadn't moved an inch from his chair with his eyebrow still raised and pointing at him he shouted "Hey, you tripped me!"

Naruto burst into laughing and said "I may be good at elemental manipulation kid, but I don't see any reason why I should have used such a flashy trick on a kid who obviously has no idea what he's doing. Just admit that you tripped on your own feet kid."

The kid got in Naruto's face and said "Your lying, admit it!"

The hokage just sighed and thought 'Why me?'

Naruto narrowed his eyes as he looked at the kid. In a flash, he was standing up with his right hand holding the kid up by his shirt collar and his left hand holding a kunai in a reverse grip where the kid could see it. Leaning in, he said "Listen kid, if I wanted to do something to you, you wouldn't even know it happened till it was too late."

After he said that, he put his kunai back and turned to the old man. But just as he was about to ask his leader who this brat was, a man wearing sunglasses came in.

"Honored Grandson? Are you in he-what are you doing to the Honored Grandson you barbarian?" The man said as he saw Naruto still holding the kid up.

Naruto looked at the man like he suddenly grew a second head. Turning once again to his grandfather figure he asked "Honored Grandson?"

The old man sighed again and said "He's talking about my grandson Konohamaru."

Naruto got an "ah" look on his face before looking back at the kid. "So you're the hokage's grandson huh?" He asked.

The kid got a smug look on his face and said "Yeah! So what are you going to do about it. Hit me?" 'He won't do anything, just like everyone else when they learn who I am.'

'Wrong person to say that to.' The hokage thought knowing that Naruto was not one to care about political status.

Naruto got an evil grin on his face which made Konohamaru and the other man look nervous. All of a sudden, Naruto set the kid down and grabbed the kid's ridiculously long scarf and wrapped it around the kid. Shouting out "I don't care if he's your grandma!", he pulled on the scarf sending the poor kid spinning like a top before he hit a wall.

When Konohamaru hit the wall, he had stars in front of his eyes.

The man with the sunglasses jaw dropped straight to the floor.

Naruto chuckled before saying "See you later old man." He then walked out of the door.

The hokage waved before looking at his grandson 'Well that was interesting.' He thought to himself.

The man with the sunglasses finally picked up his jaw as he walked towards the hokage.

Reaching the desk he said "Lord Hokage. I demand that proper punishment be taken for that barbarian's action! He shows no respect what so ever for those with higher status."

The hokage sighed and said "Ebisu, Naruto is not a barbarian. He is one of the strongest rookie ninja we have. Despite what you have against him for the burden he carries, he is not some demon out to get everyone."

"B-but Lord Hokage! You saw what he did to the Honored Grandson!" At this, the now introduced Ebisu pointed to where Konohamaru was only to find him gone.

Ebisu suddenly panicked looking around the room. "W-where did he go?"

The old man just chuckled and said "I do believe he went after Naruto."

Ebisu just looked like he was told the world was about to end. He shot out of the room shouting "Honored Grandson!"

Sarutobi chuckled again while shaking his head as he thought 'Definitely interesting.'

Hidden Leaf Village Market Place

Naruto sighed. 'That kid's stubborn.' He heard his father mentally agreeing with him.

He had been walking down the streets trying to lose the old man's grandson, but the kid kept following him. He knew that he could really lose him if he really wanted to, but the fact was, he was a little curious. Although considering how terrible the kid's tailing skills were, it was more like Naruto was the one doing the tracking.

Finally having enough as he stopped at a fence he turned around and said "Drop the cloth kid. You have got to be the worst at stealth ever."

A section of the fence that was horizontal instead of vertical dropped revealing the kid.

"Wow, you actually found me, I knew I had chosen right."

Father and son cocked their eyebrows when they heard this and shared a single thought. 'What on earth is wrong with this kid?'

Naruto shook his head and said "Look kid, first of all, you had that sheet the wrong way so it was obvious that you were there. Second, you really need to learn how to tail someone properly. Your chakra presence shown like a beacon, as small as it was, and I could smell you two blocks away. You try tailing an enemy ninja like that and your going to get yourself killed."

Konohamaru looked down at his feet. Naruto was starting to worry that he had been a little to harsh before he looked back up with determination.

"Then teach me."

Naruto raised his eyebrow. "Come again."

"Teach me how to be a proper ninja then. You must be loads better than my other one. All he does is go on about how if I do what he says it will be the quickest way to becoming Hokage."

Naruto and his father were shocked when they heard this. Not the request to be taught but the fact that the teacher thought he knew all the shortcuts.

Naruto suddenly heard his father growling. **"'The quickest way to becoming Hokage?' What kind of fool makes that kind of claim. In order to become leader of the pack, you have to earn the alpha position. There are no shortcuts."**

Naruto nodded agreeing with his father before returning his sights to the kid. Sighing, he keeled down and said "Your teacher is an idiot if he says that." Seeing Konohamaru's shocked face, he continued. "The only way to become Hokage is to work at it. If you want me to teach you a few things then I will, but I got to warn you. If you learn from me, I expect you to give me one hundred percent. Are we clear?"

Konohamaru nodded with a grin forming on his face.

Naruto got a matching grin before saying "Then follow me."

Edge of Forest Behind Hokage Mountain

"All right, this place will do." Naruto said as they were standing on the edge of the forest.

Konohamaru looked around since he had never been up here before. Turning to Naruto he asked "So what are you going to teach me first boss?"

Naruto looked down at him and cocked his head thinking. After a few seconds he said "Let's see if we can't get that chakra beacon of yours under control."

Seeing Konohamaru's confused look, Naruto unleashed his now unconsciously used barriers on his own chakra that he was taught by Mizuki for a few seconds. Naruto's chakra flared turning into a visible seven foot bon fire for a couple of seconds before he reigned it in shocking Konohamaru who fell down in awe of how much chakra Naruto had.

Naruto then explained to Konohamaru the basics of finding his chakra and how to draw it out or place mental barriers to hide the chakra from others. Konohamaru took to it surprisingly well, and in a couple of hours he turned his chakra from a beacon to barely a flash light.

After he had learned how to raise and lower his chakra's 'presence' to reasonable levels, Naruto decided to show him a few chakra control skills since just because the kid could hide his chakra presence, didn't mean he could use it properly. He started with the kunai balancing technique showing Konohamaru what to do. He had the kid use the ring instead of point though just to be safe.

They had been at it for about five minutes before Naruto sensed another chakra presence incoming.

'About time that pretender found us. Makes me wonder why the old man selected him to teach his grandson.' Naruto thought. He heard his father chuckling in agreement.

"There you are Honored Grandson. Do you know how worried I have been?"

Konohamaru, who had been trying to keep the ring steady, lost his concentration when he heard the voice. Seeing the kunai about to fall, Naruto sent a chakra string to the kunai and tugged it into his hand so that Konohamaru wouldn't hurt himself in his distracted state.

Konohamaru who had seen what Naruto did, instantly got wide eyed. Looking at Naruto with even more respect than he had previously he asked "How did you do that boss?"

Ignoring Ebisu's indignant cry of "BOSS?" Naruto chuckled and said "Chakra thread. You send out a small 'line' of chakra and attach it to an object. You can use it to redirect an object's movement. The most practical form of using chakra threads is using them to control ninja puppets. I'll teach you how do make them sometime later."

Ebisu snorted hearing this. Jumping down from the branch he was in he walked towards them saying "You teach the Honored Grandson? Not likely barbarian."

Konohamaru scowled when he heard this and said "He's taught me more than you ever did!"

Ebisu started stuttering, but before he got far, Naruto held up his hand stopping him in his tracks. Naruto finally turned around and gave Ebisu a hard look which instantly made him nervous.

Naruto kept silent for a few seconds. When he did talk, it was in a tone of voice that made Ebisu shiver. "Is it true that you told Konohamaru that you knew the quickest way to become Hokage?"

Ebisu, against what must would say was common sense, puffed out his chest in pride and said "That's right. I am the most qualified teacher to teach the Honored Grandson since I know exactly what is needed to be known to become Hokage as well as the fastest way to do so."

Naruto's eyes narrowed making Ebisu even more nervous. Naruto took a step so that he was right next to the older shinobi. Grabbing Ebisu's shirt collar, he brought the now sweating Ebisu's face close and said. "You can't be that good of a teacher if you still believe in shortcuts. Even if those existed, the reason why they're called shortcuts is because while they are quick, they cut you short. Only a fool would use them to reach such an important position such as the Hokage."

Ebisu suddenly seemed to grow a spine as he grabbed Naruto's hand and took it off his collar. Standing up with a smug grin he said "Your one to talk barbarian. I've heard how you've used those shadow clones to learn everything at a much faster pace. Now who used shortcuts."

Expecting Naruto to get angry at him like the barbarian he thought he was, Ebisu was surprised when Naruto chuckled. Seeing Ebisu's face and enjoying the bombshell he was about to drop, Naruto said "Shadow clones aren't a shortcut, their a ninja style learning tool. It's only a shortcut if it hinders you in the long run, and shadow clones don't hinder you if you can use them properly like I can. Get your facts straight before you shoot out accusations. I use shadow clones exactly like they are supposed to be used. They are meant to gather information and that is exactly what I use them for."

Ebisu started stuttering again "B-but, you created armies to do chakra control exercises and read in the libraries while you did other things. You-"

Naruto cut him off by saying "The reason why I have them doing chakra exercises is the exact same reason why I can create that many in the first place. My chakra reservoir is HUGE. I need to be able to control it or all mayhem will erupt because I couldn't properly control it. As for sending clones to the library, I had a lot of catching up to do considering that before Mizuki-sensei and Iruka-sensei, no teacher would ever teach me anything or even give me the time of day. So tell me, are they really a shortcut, or are they a way to help someone who needed every bit of help he could get?"

Ebisu once again started stuttering trying to come up with an excuse that could hold a candle to Naruto's logic. Unfortunately there wasn't one since everything Naruto had said was the truth.

Seeing this, Naruto said "That's what I thought. Stop telling Konohamaru that you know everything and can make him Hokage quicker. All your doing is inflating your ego with lies." Turning to Konohamaru he continued "I suggest you ask the old man for a better teacher. I won't be able to teach you all the time since I will have missions, but I'll do my best to make time for you. Once you can balance the ring of the kunai perfectly for a full minute, switch to the point and do the same. Once you finish, come find me."

Naruto started walking away past Ebisu, but before he got too far away, he called out "Hey Ebisu!"

Ebisu turned around about ask what the blond wanted now. What he got was a face full of a whip creamed pie that Naruto kept sealed for pranks. Ebisu got mad and started chasing Naruto who started laughing and led him on a five hour chase. Konohamaru saw what his boss did and started laughing before running back to the village.

The third hokage, who had seen the whole thing with his crystal ball, smiled with a thought. 'Once a prankster, always a prankster.'


	20. Chunnin Exams: Getting Started

Chunnin Exams: Getting Started

The team of two rooks and one vet pushed open the door to the classroom and walked in. When they were about ten feet in, the two rooks looked around at the teams. Naruto had started looking around the second he could see in, moving only his eyes. Some of the leaf Genin who had been in the war games with the former team 7 nodded their heads in acknowledgment when they made eye contact with him and he returned the gesture before continuing to look around.

Deciding to get what ever intel he could without being obvious about it, Naruto started breathing through his nose, mentally cataloging everything he smelled. Mostly just metal from all the kunai and shuriken in the room. He did pick up a few other scents though such as poison from a couple of the teams, mainly the foreign ones.

He then added chakra to his ears and listened in on the conversations to see what he could learn that way. Not much on that department, mostly just teams saying how good they were going to do and how the rest of the group didn't have a chance against them. Naruto and his father mentally snorted when hearing this.

'Typical. Thinking their all that just because they've been selected to take the exams.' The kyubi snorted again in agreement.

Naruto focused on his chakra sensing abilities next and saw that while most of the chakras were in the expected range, there were a few that were surprisingly, or not so much if you thought about it, high. One was obvious since it was coming from a fellow jinchurikki . Two more came from his teammates. The last one came from a silver haired guy wearing glasses with a leaf headband on although he was doing a good job of keeping it from feeling like nothing more than a candle. Naruto however could tell that his actual chakra reservoir was closer to that of a Jounin.

'Remind me not to take that one for granted. He's probably the biggest threat here.' He said to his father who agreed.

He took this all in within twenty seconds without his teammates being any the wiser.

All of a sudden, a bunch of people came in muttering about a stupid genjustu. Naruto resisted the urge to visibly slap his forehead when he heard this. Mentally he groaned while thinking to his father 'Okay, who was the moron who thought it would be a good idea to reveal that?' Naruto sensed his father mentally shrug before he sensed a semi familiar chakra presence coming quickly.

"Sasuke-kun!"

He quickly grabbed Sasuke from his right and pulled him out of the way of the girl who had just tried to glomp him from behind. Said girl ended up falling to the floor. Sasuke looked at Naruto silently saying thanks with his eyes. Naruto nodded and looked down at the now revealed Ino Yamanaka.

Meanwhile, Sakura had burst out laughing while thinking. 'Hah! That's what she gets for trying to take Sasuke-kun like that. Having Naruto around sure comes in handy.' (Still fan-girl at this point but a whole lot better about it than in the manga. Had to be to survive the training the two vets gave the rooks.)

Ino got up off the floor and turned to Naruto and shouted out "Why did you do that you idiot?"

Naruto grinned at her and simply said "When you're on a team, you look out for your teammates."

Sasuke smirked as Sakura and the rest of the leaf Genin who knew Naruto and could hear what he said burst out laughing while everyone else was looking between Naruto and them wondering why they had such a relationship to an apparent rookie. Ino bristled and was about to return fire before she was cut off.

"Sigh, troublesome."

Naruto turned around to see Shikamaru and Chouji coming in.. Grinning he jerked his thumb toward Ino and said "I think you guys lost this."

Sakura laughed at the shade of red Ino was turning, but before the fireworks could start, they were once again interrupted.

"Well, it looks like all the rookies are back together."

Naruto looked past the first two boys to see Hinata and her team come in. Smiling, he walked over to Hinata who smiled at him as well before he hugged her and then kissed her forehead earning a small blush from her.

Sakura and Sasuke stared at him as did all of the other leaf shinobi in there, vets included. The vets of course had heard about how the girl had helped pull him from his little depression spell after that fateful mission, but they didn't think it had gone that far. Sure Naruto was likeable, but to actually have the Hyuga heiress as his apparent girlfriend was a little much for those who knew the blond.

Kiba had a shocked look on his face while Shino just raised an eyebrow.

Naruto sensed all the stares but decided to ignore them in favor of looking at Hinata. Still smiling he said "How've you been Hinata?"

Hinata got her blush under control and said "I've been fine Naruto. Been a little boring though without you constantly pranking everyone."

Naruto and the other vets chuckled. The vets definitely agreed that it has been quite since Naruto and Kakashi had started training their charges.

Naruto just rubbed the back of his head and said "Yeah, I'm going to have to start doing that after the exams. Got a reputation to uphold after all."

The vets along with Hinata laughed at that while the rooks just kept watching trying to figure out what was going on. The foreigners were just trying to figure out the crazy blond who seemed to be a bridge between rooks and vets. Some started to glare at the carefree banter going around while the rest started giving the rooks and Naruto calculated stares.

Naruto sensed the silver haired youth heading their ways before he heard a voice from behind him.

"Sheesh, keep it down you guys, can't you sense the mood?"

The rooks and Naruto turned to the guy and saw where he was pointing. Naruto who had already sensed the so called mood and did not care either way just looked out of the corner of his eye before moving back to his team and looking around the room again. The rooks turned all the way around and started getting nervous from all the glares coming from the foreign ninja and some of the leaf Genin who thought that the rooks were thinking they were all that for walking in like they owned the place.

Kiba suddenly seemed to grow a spine and stepping forward he said "What are you guys looking at? If you want some, come and get some." Instantly, every single vet and foreign shinobi in the room focused on him and blasted him with their killing intent. Kiba started to visibly sweat under the combined ki while the rest of the rooks besides Sakura and Sasuke who had felt worse before started shivering at just being in the same room.

Naruto just rolled his eyes as he and his father shared the same thought. 'Typical rook. Thinking he's a gift from god or something.' Taking a step forward he cleared his throat bringing attention to himself. "All right guys, cool your jets. There will be plenty of time to show the rook his place during the exam. And as for my leaf brothers, I would have thought you would have known not to let what a rook says affect you so much."

The foreign ninja dropped their ki levels reluctantly while the leaf vets realized that Naruto was right and that they shouldn't have let their emotions come to a boil like that. Kiba was about to retort to the statement about him being put in place before Naruto glanced at him and pulsed out his own ki for a second making Kiba gasp and wisely shut up.

Turning around to the newcomer, Naruto said "Sorry about that. You were saying?"

The kid had been watching from the start and thought to himself. 'That one seems to be a natural leader. Even the foreigners listed to him.' Looking at Naruto he nodded and said "Well, I was going to say that they were all a little high strung and that you should watch what you say around them, but that doesn't seem to be a problem now. You really know how to get people to listen to you don't you?"

Naruto rubbed the back of his head embarrassed and said "I guess it just runs in my family. From what I've found out about my parents from before they died they both were leader types as well."

The silver-haired vet got an "oh" look on his face before he continued. "Well anyway my name's Kabuto. I figured that since most of you guys were rooks and this is your first time, I could give you some advice. I'm a bit of a veteran when it comes to these exams. After all, I've taken them a few times now."

Naruto raised his eyebrow at this but didn't say anything. Sakura however did.

"How many times have you actually done this?"

Kabuto rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment and said "This will be my seventh time."

Kiba scoffed and said "Seven times? Man you must be weak!"

Kabuto then got defensive "Hey these exams are hard."

Naruto allowed himself to narrow his eyes an imperceptible fraction as he thought 'Bull shit. This guy has chakra levels higher than Asuma-sensei and he claims that he hasn't passed to chunnin yet? It's official now, this guy is not what he seems. I bet Ibiki would love having a little 'talk' with him.' He felt his father agreeing with him as he started to growl lowly in his throat.

He caught the rest of Kabuto's little chirade as he and his father put their focus back on him. "Anyway, all those times have taught me to gather all the information I could on them and the teams taking them. I've got info on just about everyone here. And I've been able to put all that information down in a way that only I can view it."

This time it was Sakura who once again spoke up. "How did you manage that?"

Kabuto smirked as he pulled a deck of blank cards out of his pouch and brought them in front of him. "With my ninja cards. They stay blank until a certain chakra frequency is poured into them. These ones are keyed to my chakra so only I can view them. But like I said, I think I'll give you some advice. If you have anyone you want to know about, just ask and I'll see what I've got. But first take a look at this."

With that, he pulled a card out of his deck and poured some chakra into it. With a poof of smoke, it revealed a map of the elemental countries with bar graphs and numbers on it.

Seeing that he had everyone's attention, Kabuto continued "This is a map of the elemental countries and all the number of how many shinobi are taking part from each village. As is usual with a hosting village, we have the most. There is also a new village that sent a team called the Sound village though their team might not be much considering their so new. So then, is there anyone who you would like to know about?"

Naruto nodded his head and said "Yeah, actually there is. What can you tell me about that team sent by the Hidden Sand village?"

Kabuto followed the thumb that had been jerked in the direction of said team before raising an eyebrow. Looking back at Naruto he nodded and pulled out three cards from his deck.

"Sand team it is then. All right, lets see what we have here. The Sand team's members are Temari, Gaara, and Kankuro of the desert. The three are siblings and are the children of the Kazekage. (Naruto raised an eyebrow after hearing that.) First up is Temari. It says here that she is a long range wind user. Her genjustu is a little below average though and her Taijustu is just above academy level. Her older brother is Kankuro. It says here that he is a puppet master. Looks like his Tai, Gen, and Ninjustu are pretty much academy level since he uses puppets. Finally there is Gaara, the youngest desert sibling. Not much known about him I'm afraid. I did find out he uses sand as well as an interesting rumor that he has never been injured on a mission. (All of the rooks wondered how that was possible although Naruto had an idea since he could control sand.) Lets see. Mission count for their team is 52 D-ranks, 25 C-ranks, and well that's interesting, 1 B-Rank mission."

The rooks were all muttering about how someone like the sand siblings could have done a B-rank while Naruto just looked thoughtful. All of a sudden, Naruto felt a miniscule spike of ki before sensing high speed movement coming in on the group's position. Turning his head a fraction, he saw out of the corner of his eye three gray blurs on a collision course with Kabuto.

Naruto frowned before taking action. As they got close, Naruto formed three shadow clones who clothes lined the rushing nin who turned out to be the sound team. The clones dispelled while the nin held their throats. Kabuto was caught by surprise since he hadn't expected Naruto to be able to react fast enough to summon Shadow Clones to do what he had. The rooks except for Sakura, Sasuke, and Hinata were surprised at how seemingly regular clones could actually cause physical harm to someone while the foreigners started looking at Naruto again with calculated stares. Most of the leaf vets just grinned at each other commenting on how Naruto hadn't lost his touch since they last saw him.

Naruto himself walked in front of the group before crouching down while wagging his finger a little as he said. "Now, now, I thought I told you guys before to cool your jets. Your lucky all I had my clones do was stop you. Believe me, if I wanted to, you guys could be without heads right now."

Before the three could reply, a series of poofing sounds was heard in the back of the room as a group of Chunnin and a man in a black Interrogator's Division coat shushined into the room. Looking around the room, the man spotted Naruto standing back up while the sound team slowly did the same.

Naruto saw the man and thought 'Ibiki Morino, just the man I wanted to see. This is going to be interesting if he's here.'

Frowning, the man said "All right maggots, pipe down. The first exam is about to take place, my name is Ibiki Morino, and I am the proctor for this stage. And you sound ninja, keep your bloodlust to a minimum. Any further hostile action that is not sanctioned will result in you being thrown out. And as for you, Uzumaki, I appreciate the fact that you took care of your fellow leaf shinobi, but next time leave it to us.." Naruto nodded before Ibiki continued. "Now then, All of you turn in your forms and take a number. When you have your number, head through the door behind me and take your seat. The written test will begin as soon as everyone is seated, so get moving!"

There was a general rush as forms were turned in and the Genin got into their assigned seats. Naruto was pleasantly surprised to find himself sitting beside Hinata. The two smiled at each other before Ibiki tapped the blackboard getting everyone's attention again.

"All right you Genin, listen up because I'm only going to say this once. This written test will have ten questions and will be a point reduction test. You start out with ten points and lose a point for every question you miss. You and your teammates scores are totaled and if the combined score is below twenty points, then your team fails. Two points will be taken off of your test each time you are caught cheating. Get caught five times and you and your team automatically fails. The tenth question will be given forty five minutes after the test begins. Now then, get started."

There was a sound of a bunch of papers being flipped and pencils being picked up.

Naruto turned his paper over and his eyes widened. 'What the hell? These questions look like they belong on the Jounin exam. There is no way that a Genin going for Chunnin could answer all of these, if any at all. Well except me, maybe Sakura, and definitely that Nara boy. Those guys are freaking geniuses. The only way the others could answer these were if they…ooooh.' Naruto had a frown on his face when he first looked at the test but then his eyes widened slightly before he grinned when he realized what this written test was actually for.

Hinata who had been watching him from the corner of her eye frowned a little before looking at the test as well. Her own eyes widened slightly before she got started righting down the answers to the questions she could do and partially activating her Byakugan for the few she couldn't.

Naruto made sure to cover his paper as best he could so no one could cheat off of him while he worked and finished within ten minutes. After flipping his paper over, he started drawing on the back side of the sheet waiting for the rest of the time until the last question to end.

Ibiki noticed Naruto finishing before everyone else and thought to himself. 'Damn, that was fast. Though I shouldn't be surprised. That kid supposedly read every book in both the civilian and shinobi libraries using shadow clones.'

Finally, thirty five minutes and about a third of the teams failing later, Ibiki told the remaining Genin to put down their pencils and said "Well, it looks like we have some good test takers this year. Or some good cheaters!" A bunch of the Genin flinched at the statement while Ibiki continued. "Now then, there are a couple of more rules that you should know about before we give out the final question. First is that you have an option of whether or not you want to answer the question."

He was cut off by one of the foreigners.

"Why would we choose not to answer the question?"

Ibiki grinned evilly sending shivers down most of the Genin's spines while Naruto narrowed his eyes wondering what the interrogator was up to. Anko had told him when he had talked to her sometimes when he and Mizuki were in the forest of death that he was the head of the Interrogator's division and that he specialized in mental torture.

Ibiki continued talking. "The reason why is because of the second rule. If you answer the question and get it wrong, you and your team automatically fail. Also, you and your team will be permanently banned from taking the exams ever again."

This was met up with a roar from most of the remaining Genin. Naruto's eyes narrowed even further as he analyzed everything he knew about Ibiki and the test so far. A few seconds later one shout was heard above the rest.

"That's impossible! I've taken this test before and there was never such a rule before!"

Ibiki just laughed and said "That's too bad. I wasn't the proctor those times. But now I am, and those are the rules!"

Before any one could chicken out though, they were jostled out of their panic by the sound of a palm slapping a desk, hard. Everyone turned to look at Naruto who was now standing and looking at Ibiki with a serious look on his face. If that didn't shock the Genin, what he said next sure did.

"You don't scare me Ibiki, and neither do your dumb rules. If your given a mission that you don't know everything about, can you just play it safe and not take it? Hell no! You have to suck it up and get the mission done. A bit of uncertainty is always present in our jobs, it's part of what makes us ninja! So go ahead and give me the question already because I am NOT going to back down!"

Ibiki stared hard at Naruto before looking out at the rest of the assembled Genin. Seeing determined faces on all of them he tried one more time to get them to back down.

"Are you all sure? This is your last chance to back down."

Seeing no one was about to back down, Ibiki smiled and said "Very well then, you all pass."

Naruto grinned and sat back down as there was silence for almost a full half minute while everyone tried to figure out what just happened before everyone shouted out at once.

"WHAT?"

Ibiki kept smiling before pointing to Naruto and said "Uzumaki is correct. If you get a mission that you don't know everything about you can not back down. If you did not have the guts to stay for the tenth question, then you don't deserve to be a Chunnin."

Temari than stood up and shouted "So what was the point of the first nine questions.?"

Ibiki undid his bandana styled head band and everyone gasped as he showed his bald head with a bunch of scars, burns, and even screw holes. He then continued "To test your information gathering skills. In our line of work, information is everything."

Before he could say anything else, Naruto felt for the second time that day a chakra presence coming at high speed at the group. One that was very familiar to him.

'Oh boy, this is going to be interesting.' he thought before the glass shattered as a black ball hurtled into the room before unfurling revealing a banner that said "Anko Mitarashi: Second Proctor of the Chunnin Exams" Underneath the banner was a purple haired woman whose outfit was a bit revealing to say the least.

The woman who was obviously introduced spoke up as soon as she was revealed. "All right you maggots. I am Anko and I'm the proctor for the next exam!"

Ibiki came around the banner and said with a frown "Your early again Anko. Can't you sense the mood in here?"

Anko looked at Ibiki than looked back at the Genin and frowned as she counted. Eyes widening, She turned fully at Ibiki and said "46 Teams? You passed 46 Teams? My god, Ibiki, how did that happen?"

Ibiki just looked at her before pointing at someone and said "Ask our future Hokage."

Murmuring went through the Genin at what Ibiki said while people started looking at Naruto trying to figure out if he had been telling the truth. The leaf vets who had been under his command during war games knew that it was very likely.

Anko's eyes turned to the size of dinner plates before she turned around and saw Naruto grinning at her. He gave her a little wave at the wrist before saying "Long time no see Anko!"

Anko got a grin and started chuckling. Breaking her eye contact with Naruto, she said "Well, I guess that answers that question, but you guys won't have our future leader with you to pull you asses out of the fire for the next part." Turning towards the window she said "Meet me at Training Ground 44 in an hour." before jumping out.

After everyone was gone, Ibiki started picking up test papers. When he touched Naruto's though, the drawings he had made rearranged themselves into a seal which glowed before turning into a message.

"Ibiki, possible traitor in Exams. Name's Kabuto. Claims to have failed seven times but has Jounin level chakra. Also claims to have gathered as much intel as possible. Contact Hokage."

Ibiki stared at the message for a minute before taking off to the Hokage Tower.


	21. Chunnin Exams: Seond Stage

Chunnin Exams: Second Stage/Call of Duty: Brothers in Arms

Naruto exited the classroom and headed towards the forest. His head was lowered as he thought about what he had just done in the classroom. On the second floor, he had told his team to not say anything about the genjustu to keep the competition down. And yet, in the first exam, he had rallied everyone there to stay. He couldn't figure out why he did that and it was driving him insane. It had just felt right at the time.

The kyubi sensed this and sent a thought to his adopted son.

"**Seems like you allowed your leader side to take over back in there. Your birth father most likely would have done the same. From what I've heard, that man could lead armies to the gates of hell and they would believe he would get them back out. You are becoming more and more like him in that regard everyday kit."**

Naruto absentmindedly nodded and looked back up. He thought about the message he left Ibiki. He then thought about what he knew of the second test. He was sure that whatever Anko had planned in the forest would not be fun for most of the people here. Oh sure he could handle it, but that was only because he had practically lived there sometimes when he and Mizuki would train there during his academy years.

And that had not been all fun and games. For the first month, Mizuki had had to constantly safe his rear end as the rather large creatures tried turning him into a snack. Oddly for some reason that neither for the life of them could figure out, the creatures never went after the shadow clones that had been training. After that month though, Naruto was able to get to the point where he could actually make escaping those monsters training. And six months after they started he was at the point where if he had to, he could make them think twice about going after him.

Naruto thought back on those times and looked at the two rook teams in front of him. Sakura and Sasuke he knew could hold their own if they ever got separated in there for a short time. He and Kakashi had made a point of making sure they could handle themselves against multiple opponents that were stronger than them until reinforcements could come. But besides Hinata, he had no idea what the rest of the rooks could do. Naruto frowned as he realized that the forest might be too much for them.

Sighing again at how he was letting his leader side once again get the best of him he called out "Teams 8 & 10! I need a word with you."

Said rook teams stopped and turned around to face him while the rest of the teams gave them a weird look but kept going. Sakura and Sasuke gave Naruto a confused look but did not say anything as they caught up with the other rooks.

Before the rooks could ask what he wanted, Naruto said "Guys, I don't mean to offend, but I know exactly what is in that forest, and except for maybe Hinata, I don't think you're ready for what's in there."

Kiba suddenly interrupted before he could continue "Are you saying we should drop out? Because if so then I ought to hit you right now!"

Naruto sighed and said "Let me finish Inuzuka. As I was saying, the forest might be a little much for you guys so I was going to give you some help if you want it."

This time it was Shikamaru who spoke up "Why would you want to help us though?"

Naruto sighed and said "Things are not what they seem Nara. I want to make sure that you guys don't get too far above your heads. Now do you guys want my help or not?"

Before the others could say they did not need help, Hinata spoke up. "If Naruto thinks that there could be trouble for us, then we should take him seriously. He has trained in that forest for almost two years and knows the area better than most shinobi. If he wants to help then we should accept his offer."

Naruto shot a grateful look at her which she smiled at. The other rooks muttered to themselves for a moment before they all nodded at him.

This time it was Shino who spoke next. "Very well, we accept. What do you suggest?"

Naruto then said "I'll be sending teams into the forest. Expect a squad with a summon escort. They will do their best to help you with the test. Inuzuka, keep your nose peeled for foxes. Other than that, all I can say is good luck."

With that, Naruto walked past them with Sakura and Sasuke following. Both had just stood there trying to figure out why Naruto would help out the rooks like that. Shrugging it off as a Naruto thing, they followed him without a word until they reached the forest.

Ten minutes later, all of the teams were standing in front of a gate numbered one that was part of a really large fence with a forest with extremely large trees. A large roar was suddenly heard from the forest making many in the group flinch.

"Ah my home away from home." Naruto said, drawing looks from the foreigners as well as some of the leaf vets who did not know about his two year training in there and most of the rooks.

Anko, who was in front of the group looking at the teams smirked and said "That's the spirit brat! Now then, first things first, I need you to sign these consent forms."

One of the sand teams asked "Why do we need to sign consent forms? We already signed those to take the exam in the first place."

Before Anko could say anything, Naruto spoke up again. "It's probably so that way the Leaf and by proxy, Anko here can not be held responsible for your death. And believe me, that is very possible in that forest. I should know, I spent the better part of two years coming to train in that forest with one of my Academy teachers. Speaking of training in there, hey Anko, you ever find that twenty five foot tiger Mizuki-sensei and I accidentally let get away that one time we were in the restricted section?"

Everyone's eyes became wider than dinner plates as he said this. Even Sasuke and Sakura were looking at him trying to figure out if he was telling the truth or not. Meanwhile, the rooks on teams 8 and 10 were suddenly glad for Naruto's offer.

They got their answer as Anko got an evil grin and said "Yup, take a look at this brat." And with a flourish, she brought out a sealing scroll and with a poof of smoke, a five foot long tooth was shown. "I really should thank you two. You guys beat that guy up so good it only took me two minutes to kill it. I got the bigger tooth mounted in my bedroom."

Naruto noticed all the looks he was getting and said "What? The guy came at us when we accidentally went in the restricted section once. I didn't even do much. Mizuki-sensei was the one who went head to head with the big guy. I just used a fire justu to catch the guy's fur on fire."

The rooks' eyes all widened and Kiba said "You're telling me Mizuki-sensei went head to head with a twenty five foot tiger? Why the hell is he not a Jounin already?"

Naruto just shrugged and said "When I asked him the same question, he just said he'd rather teach."

Anko then said "As much fun as it talking about what the brat and his teacher did while they were in there, we have an exam to run. Now then, let me explain a few things. For those of you babies wondering if you will have to face something like that, the creatures in the forest that actually reach that size are inside an area marked the restricted section. None of you will be going in that area. (A ton of relieved sighs while Anko and Naruto laughed.) That doesn't mean that the rest are to be taken lightly though. Now then, you guys will be playing a ninja version of capture the flag. Or in this case, capture the scroll."

Anko pulled out two more scrolls from the other side of the coat to the one she put the resealed tooth in. Continuing she said "After each team turns in all three consent forms, they will be given either a heaven or an earth scroll. Inside at the center of the forest, is a tower. You must obtain both scrolls and reach the tower within five days."

Chouji suddenly shouted out "Five Days? What do we do for food?"

Anko chuckled and said "There's plenty of food in the forest to kill or find. Just don't eat anything poisonous. Speaking of which, hey brat, what did you think tasted better, that giant centipede we killed that one time or the ten foot tiger we found in the north east corner?"

Naruto cocked his head and said "Definitely the tiger, though that centipede isn't too far behind."

Everyone once again looked at Naruto. Some were shuddering from hearing he had eaten a centipede while others were making mental notes not to mess with the blond. Others were starting to wonder if most of the forest was overrated except the restricted section.

Anko decided to once again get the ball rolling again. "Well anyway, there are a couple or rules you should know about before we get started. First rule: Only full teams of three can enter the tower. You lose one of your teammates or one is indisposed, you fail. Also, you can not open your scrolls until you are inside the tower. This is to test you to see if you are trustworthy enough to run missions where you carry classified information."

One of the waterfall ninja asked "What happens if we open them before?"

Anko got an evil grin and said "That's for those who ignore the rule to find out."

Finished explaining, Anko took a seat under a tree while she waited for the teams to sign their forms and trade them in at a booth with a curtain for a scroll. Once they had their scroll, teams took off to their gates. Some teams glanced at Naruto on the way out while others looked nervously into the forest.

When Team 7 went in to get their scroll. Naruto sealed the heaven scroll into a special sealing scroll and put the scroll in one of his cargo shorts pockets which held another scroll like it for the other scroll. Seeing his teammates confused looks, he explained how the scrolls required his precise chakra signature to unseal the items put into them. The two nodded in understanding before they took off to their gate.

Once they were at their gate, Naruto turned around and said "All right guys, fair warning before we go in there. The creatures in the forest are dangerous but only if you don't take them absolutely seriously. Get them alone and you should have no problems."

The two nodded. Five minutes later, their gate opened and Naruto led them 100 feet into the forest before stopping.

Naruto expanded all of his senses, checking to if anyone was immediately close to their position. Finding no one besides the chunnin who let them into the forest in a 200 foot range, he nodded to himself before getting to work.

Naruto focused and his chakra suddenly flared into a bonfire making Sakura and Sasuke jump back in surprise. Forming his favorite justu, six squads of three clones appeared in front of them. Naruto's bonfire immediately disappeared, but he wasn't done yet. He bit his thumb and ran through the familiar hand signs before slamming his palm down on the ground with a small cry of summoning justu. A poof of smoke and a popping sound later seven foxes of regular size were standing between team 7 and the clone teams.

As soon as the foxes had a chance to look around, Naruto went into captain mode. Pointing to each team as he gave them their orders, he explained what he needed.

"All right guys, here's the plan. Teams Alpha and Bravo will head to my left along the fence until they reach the next two gates on that side. Alpha turns inward at the first gate, Bravo team continues to the next gate before coming in as well. Teams Charlie and Delta will do the same on my right. Your jobs will be to track down the teams from those gates and obtain their scroll if possible. I've given each clone enough chakra to create ten more clones or use 5 B-rank justu. Teams Echo and Foxtrot will be locating teams 8 and 10 and provide support for them. Foxes, I need you to help the squads locate teams. When a team has obtained a scroll, guide them back to Team 7's position while avoiding as much conflict as possible. Rigeoned, I want you with my team. (The fox closest to Naruto nodded at this.) Fengril, (Said fox raised his head an inch.) Team 8 is a tracking unit with a ninja dog. Lock onto its scent to find them easier."

Seeing the fox nod, Naruto continued. "Use radios to maintain contact. We'll stick to our usual frequency. If you get out of range, use shadow clone memory to update us if you discover anything the rest of us need to know about. Are there any questions?"

Seeing everyone shake their heads, he nodded.

"Scatter!"

In a flash, the squads took off leaving only team 7 and the last of the foxes who went to stand beside Naruto. Turning to his teammates while unsealing a radio set, he said "We're heading straight to the tower. We're going hard, and we're going fast. We encounter a team with a scroll, we hit them blitzkrieg style, grab their scroll, and keep going. Once at the tower, we wait for Teams Alpha through Delta before going in. While waiting, we'll set up defensive traps around us to keep us safe. Any questions?"

Seeing the two shake their heads Naruto said "Then take off your weights. Like I said, we're going for speed here. I'll use my chakra sensing as well as sense of smell to warn us of teams. Rigeoned here will be doing the same."

Said fox nodded his head before shrinking himself and hopping into one of Naruto's pockets so he could focus more on finding other teams in the area than where he was going. Sakura and Sasuke stared before snapping out of their stupor and disengaging the chakra weights Naruto had given them in Wave. The team then shot off through the woods at high speeds.

With Team 8

Team 8 was one of the lucky teams in that they got their other scroll rather quickly. A leaf vet team had tried sneaking up on them and had ended up falling into a trap set up by the team. Now the team was jumping from tree to tree on their way to the tower.

Suddenly Kiba stiffened. Seeing this Hinata activated her Byakugan while Shino asked "What's wrong?"

Kiba looked at him before turning back around and said "I smell fox. And it's coming fast. Real fast."

Hinata dropped her Byakugan just as four blurs came at them from a thirty degree angle behind them before bouncing off one of the trees the team was jumping from. The blurs turned into a squad of three Narutos with a fox keeping pace with them no problem. The clones each took a position ahead of the tracker team in a pyramid formation with the fox in the middle between the two clones in the wing positions.

The clone in the lead turned around in the air and said "We're going to be your escort to the tower. Our team's name is Foxtrot." As he was saying this, he shot off from the next branch without even looking.

Kiba smirked and said. "Thanks, but I don't think we'll need it. We already have both scrolls."

The clone just smirked as well and said "All the more reason for us to escort you to the tower. If the other teams know you have both scrolls they'll come after you since no matter which scroll they already have, they get the other scroll as well as an extra they could use to bargain with."

Kiba frowned but didn't say anything more. Shino and Hinata simply nodded. The lead clone also nodded and flipped around in time to launch himself off the next branch facing forward. He then reached to his radio and set it from standby receive to active communication and said "Team Foxtrot reporting. Located Team 8. Heading to tower now."

The original Naruto's voice came from the radio.

"Roger that Foxtrot good luck. We'll meet you at the tower."

"Roger. Foxtrot over and out."

The two teams kept going for ten minutes before all of the members of Foxtrot suddenly stiffened.

Team 8 noticed this and Shino asked what was wrong.

The clones and fox frowned and the leader said "We're coming up on that sand team the boss asked about. There's also another team close to them. We're going to have to go around them."

Kiba snorted and said "Why? If we know their there then why not take them in an ambush? We could get more scrolls and cut the competition that way."

The clone turned around again and said. "The answer is simple. You guys are a tracking team. Those guys are more like the sand version of Team 7 which is a rapid response/heavy assault team. Even if you did ambush them, their youngest member could probably kill all three of you with that sand he controls. And that's not counting that other team out there. Can you honestly say you could leave a fight with two other teams without a scratch?"

Kiba was about to respond to that before they got too close and Akamaru started shivering and whining. Kiba frowned and asked "What's wrong boy?" The pup just whimpered some more before going deeper into Kiba's coat.

Hinata asked "What's wrong with Akamaru Kiba?"

Kiba frowned some more and said "Akamaru has the ability to sense how strong people are. He says there is someone there who is absurdly strong."

The clones heard this and the one on the right looked back and said "That's why we're avoiding them. If that guy takes us out, you guys are on your own. It's better to avoid battles if you don't think you can come out on top if you can."

Kiba didn't say anything since he was too concerned with Akamaru while Hinata and Shino remained silent as well.

The lead clone turned around and changed course at the next branch taking the two teams around the confrontation.

With Team 10

Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji were currently hiding in the bushes as Neji was walking past.

Turning to the bush, he said "You can come out now. I know you're there."

The team slowly came out of the bush but before Ino could try and make a fool of herself by trying to get Neji to go for her looks, a voice called out from behind Team 10.

"Leave them alone Neji."

Team 10 turned around and looked up where a squad of Naruto clones was standing on a branch with a fox sitting down at their feet. The squad and fox were looking down at Neji in a semi relaxed stance ready to rush him if they needed to.

Neji just smirked and said with a smug look. "So the failure has come to protect the other failures."

The clones all rose an eyebrow before the leader spoke up.

"Whatever you say Neji. Now, are you going to leave or are we going to have a fight?"

Neji just scoffed and said "I don't have time for failures like you." He then turned and jumped away into the trees.

The clones frowned but didn't say anything.

Ino however was pissed. But before she could say anything, Shikamaru put a hand on her should before turning back to the squad and said "Thanks for the assist."

The leader nodded and said "Don't mention it. By the way do you guys have both scrolls yet?"

Shikamaru shook his head and said "Not yet. We still need a heaven scroll."

The clones grinned while the one on the leader's left said "Well then, I guess it's a good thing we took out that team of Waterfall ninja on the way here. The guys never stood a chance when we blitzkrieged them on the way here."

The leader tossed the scroll to them before setting his radio to general communication and said "Team Echo reporting. Team 10 found. Heading to the tower now."

The originals voice came through the radio.

"Roger that Echo. Foxtrot's already in bound to the tower. Be careful out there. See you at the tower."

"Roger. Echo over and out."

Setting his radio back to standby receive he looked back at Team 10 before saying "Follow us." Echo team took off in a pyramid formation with the fox in the middle and team 10 followed.

Back with Team 7, Naruto had just got off the radio with Echo Team before Rigeoned suddenly jerked his head up and said "We're coming up on a team. They seem pretty weak to me. Most likely genjustu users."

Naruto frowned at that wondering who was the idiot that thought an all genjustu team would work out. Focusing his senses to the front of him, he picked up on the chakra signatures and agreed with Rigeoned.

Calling over his shoulder he said "Sakura, Sasuke, get ready. We're about to get another scroll."

Both rooks stiffened before listening to Naruto explain the plan.

Meanwhile, a team of Mist ninja was setting up traps for anyone unlucky enough to come their way. Finished setting up, they were about to activate a wide area genjustu when they found a foot in each of their faces. Team 7 kicked off the mist ninja back flipping before landing on the ground and shot back to the ninja where they landed punching them in the stomach with enough force to knock them out.

After a quick search for the mist team's scroll, which was fortunately an earth scroll, Team 7 kept going on to the tower.

Later

Team 7 was currently thirty minutes out from the tower. They hadn't picked off anymore teams but that was just fine to Naruto. He had been getting that feeling again and just wanted to get to the tower as quickly as possible. Just as he was about to create a clone so he could get his team there even faster by piggy backing the other two, he sensed a very powerful wind justu incoming.

Eyes widening, Naruto quickly turned himself around in midair and pushed his teammates back to the branch they were just on. Sakura and Sasuke could only widen their eyes as the blast of wind hit Naruto and sent him flying out of sight.

With Naruto, he was blasted a good two miles away from his teammates. Landing, he discovered multiple cuts along his body that were already healing. Frowning he checked his pockets to find most of his scrolls were still intact, thankfully the two with the heaven and earth scrolls were among them.

Rigeoned had jumped out when he had landed and shifted back to his regular size before checking himself as well. He only had a few minor cuts along his body. Looking up and back the way they came, the fox gave a low whistle at what he saw. "Uh Naruto, you may want to see this."

Naruto looked up and gave a low whistle of his own. All of the trees at the level he was at before were turned to shreds. Cocking his head Naruto said "Good thing I'm a wind user. If I hadn't put that wind shield over us we really would have been screwed. Glad I got Sakura and Sasuke out of the way of that. They wouldn't have stood a chance."

While they were talking, an extremely large snake that had absolutely no right being outside of the restricted section was coming up behind them. Just before it launched itself at the two Naruto and Rigeoned turned around and jumped backwards as far as they could to avoid it.

Naruto's eyes widened before he said "Rigeoned, get clear! I'm going pinball!"

Said fox nodded and shot off away from the snake while Naruto wreathed himself in a full body wind shield again. Only this one was a five foot shell covering everything but right under his feet. The snake was about to strike again when Naruto said "Ah hell no! I did not get this far to be eaten by a snake!" With that, he launched himself straight through the snake and came out on the other side. The snake hissed in pain, but Naruto wasn't done yet. He ricocheted off of the tree in front of him to other trees like a pinball going against the bouncers constantly tearing through the snake.

Fifteen seconds later, the snake crashed to the ground. Naruto disengaged his wind shield but he and Rigeoned got the surprise of their lives when the snake suddenly disappeared in a poof of smoke.

Rigeoned who had just rejoined Naruto cocked his head while Naruto frowned.

'A summon? But I thought the only ones with a snake summons were Anko and Oro-' Naruto's eyes widened as he suddenly felt a massive chakra presence.

Father and son shared one thought 'You have got to be kidding me.' Turning to where he felt the presence, he frowned when it came from where he was before.

Turning to Rigeoned he said. "Get back in Rigeoned, we're going to have to move fast." Said fox nodded before once again shrinking back down and going into one of Naruto's pockets that hadn't been torn by the wind attack.

While he was doing this, Naruto had turned on his radio and told Teams Alpha through Delta to head to Sakura and Sasuke's position as quickly as they could. Disengaging his weights once Rigeoned was in place, he shot off through the woods back to his teammates.

Back with Sakura and Sasuke, both were panting real hard. The grass nin that had shown up and later revealed himself to be Orochimaru had hit them hard and fast. Both of them knew that if they hadn't been hard core trained by Naruto and Kakashi since they had first graduated then they would have been dead right now. As it was, they were barely able to stay alive. And the worst part was that he was playing with them.

Sakura and Sasuke were currently on a branch panting while Orochimaru was standing across a twenty five foot gap on a tree in front of them. All of a sudden his neck extended and he bit Sasuke on the neck who immediately began screaming in pain. As he was pulling his head back to his body, a half foot wide concentrated white hot stream of fire suddenly connected and traveled up the Sannin's body. Sakura and an even more gasping Sasuke found themselves to their relief looking at Naruto's back and they could tell that he was NOT happy.

In Naruto's mind, he could hear the Kyubi growling up a storm from his anger at seeing the one who had killed his mate and kit. Surprisingly though, he wasn't saying anything, just getting ready to give a hand if he needed to.

The body of Orochimaru suddenly turned into mud as the real one came out from inside the tree. Looking at Naruto, he began chuckling before he said "Ku Ku Ku, looks like another mouse has come to play. But what can you do I wonder? No matter, I've gotten what I came for."

At this, Naruto gave a quick glance at Sasuke before frowning. Raising his voice, he shouted out to Orochimaru's confusion "Squads! Sound off! 7!'

Immediately after from four different angles, shouts were heard.

"Alpha!"

"Bravo!"

"Charlie!"

"Delta!"

Right after the shouts were made, four five foot wide streams of white fire met each other on the tree the Sannin was in forming a wide X. Sakura and Sasuke stared at the tree while Naruto watched with a frown on his face. When the fire was over, there was nothing left of the tree but ash and no sign of the snake user. Rigeoned and Naruto focused their senses as much as they could while the four clone squads came up to them but neither could find the Sannin.

Right after the clones came into view Sasuke gave one last scream while clutching his neck before dropping on the branch unconscious.

Sakura screamed out "Sasuke-kun!" while trying to figure out what she should do to help him.

Naruto and the clones frowned even more when they saw the mark on his neck. Turning to his squads he said "We need to get him to the tower ASAP. Form a five foot square box pyramid formation." The clones nodded while Naruto formed another clone. The clone put Sasuke on the original Naruto's back before telling Sakura to hop onto its back. Once Sakura was in position, the group shot off to the tower.


	22. Chunnin Exams: Prelims part one

Chunnin Exams Prelims

Author's Notes: Hey guys quick explanation real quick. Yes I made up the foxes' names on the fly. They mean absolutely nothing when translated. Rigeoned stays with Naruto for a while since he is a sub commander of a specialized tracking squad. It's the reason why he can shrink and is a chakra sensor. He sticks with the team until everything calms down since he has to report everything that happened to the boss summon who will be introduced at a later time. One other thing, the first part of this chapter is going to seem a little rushed. That's just because I want to get to the prelim fights. For those of your wondering, I am covering all of them till Naruto's fight which is why the chapter will be a little longer than usual. Here's the next chapter.

Once Sakura and Sasuke were secure, the large group shot off at extremely high speeds towards the tower. The foxes had all secured themselves by going into the clones pockets. While most couldn't shrink their forms like Rigeoned, they made do since they knew that they had no chance keeping up with their summoner when he needed to use his full speed.

Sakura turned her head into the clones neck to cover her eyes from the wind the speed they were traveling at created. Naruto and the clones had added chakra to their eyes so that they could actually see where they were going. Normally this wouldn't have been necessary but they were pouring as much chakra into their legs as they dared to get there as fast as possible.

They reached the tower in under two minutes and came to a screeching halt at one of the doors that led inside. Glancing around for anyone who had a death wish at the moment, the group quickly entered the tower. Once the doors were closed, the clones let the foxes out before dispelling themselves. The extra scrolls they collected dropped to the ground around the foxes who simply batted them with their tails so that they were in a pile before they themselves dispelled with a quick word from Naruto.

The clone let Sakura down before walking over to a message at the end of the room. Naruto slowly set Sasuke down and Sakura came over to check up on him. Rigeoned in the mean time hopped out of the original's pocket and grew back to regular size and joined her at examining Sasuke.

Turning to the original he said "We need to get him help quick Naruto. He's getting one hell of a fever."

Naruto nodded before the last remaining clone said "Hey boss, looks like we need to open the scrolls to get through."

Naruto glanced over at the clone and saw where he was pointing. Reading the message he nodded and beckoned the clone and Sakura over to the pile of four scrolls before taking out the heaven and earth scrolls he had on him. Nodding to the two when they had their scrolls in their hands, the three then opened the three sets they had.

As the scrolls started smoking, Naruto recognized the summoning seal and they tossed the scrolls to the ground where they were drawn together in xs and with a poof of smoke Iruka, Mizuki, and another Chunnin appeared.

The three chunnin looked around and were surprised to see two other chunnin besides themselves before they turned to the team.

But before they could say anything, Naruto spoke up. "Iruka-Sensei! Mizuki-Sensei! Thank goodness! We need a medic now! Our team had a run in with Orochimaru and he did something to Sasuke! He's got some kind of mark on his neck."

The Chunnin were shocked and wondered if he was serious before they glanced at Sasuke's neck. Taking immediate action, Iruka grabbed Sasuke and shushined away while Mizuki told the other chunnin to get the Hokage and come to the tower. When he had left Mizuki led the other two members of team 7 and Rigeoned who had remained through all this to their room to drop off Sakura before he dragged Naruto and Rigeoned to the room that Sasuke was brought into where Iruka, the Hokage, Kakashi, and a medic were already talking with Sasuke hooked to an IV line.

Seeing Naruto, the group started asking questions and Naruto explained as well as he could what happened. When he was done, it was agreed that Naruto and Kakashi would do their best to seal the curse seal when Sasuke regained consciousness as a semi permanent solution. It was thought too dangerous to attempt to do while he was under like he was. In the meantime, they would leave a couple of Naruto's shadow clones that he would fill to the brim with chakra to act as guards. One would stay outside while the other would be in the room. With as much chakra as the two clones had, they could potentially take on a whole Anbu squad on their own. Rigeoned had at that time left seeing that he was no longer needed to report back to his leader.

After everything was taken care of on that end, Naruto contacted the last two teams who were still in the forest and got updates from them. When Echo and Foxtrot had received the other shadow clones' memories, they had immediately rushed their own escorts to the tower much the same way Naruto had made the last stretch. They were currently en route and would get to the tower in the next seven to eleven minutes.

Naruto had then gone to the cafeteria and had grabbed a meal before bringing some food to Team 7's room for Sakura who had immediately fallen asleep when they had reached the room. Setting the food next to her bed, Naruto had then gone into his mindscape to talk with his father about what happened.

Six hours later, Sasuke had woken up and had tried to start a fight with the shadow clone inside the room with him. The clone used its speed to pin him down until Sasuke had calmed down enough from the adrenaline rush the curse mark had given him. The other clone had immediately dispelled letting Naruto know what happened who in turn gathered Kakashi and the Hokage to the room.

Naruto had explained to Sasuke what had happened and told him that they needed to seal the curse seal. Sasuke had started an argument about it before Naruto explained exactly what the seal was doing to him after he had looked at it. He told Sasuke about how the seal actually worked two ways. The first was completely replacing his natural chakra making him dependent on it after a period of time and that it was actually so corrosive that it shortened his life span when he used it. The second part was to chip away his mental defenses until he was nothing but a puppet. Needless to say, Sasuke did not like the idea of being someone else's puppet and agreed to the sealing.

One Hour Later: Room Underneath The Tower

Naruto, Kakashi, and Sasuke were currently in a room underneath the tower. Sasuke was sitting on his knees with his hands in shackles to keep him from doing any damage when the seal started. Naruto and Kakashi were busy drawing on the ground and Sasuke's body preparing the seal that Naruto had thought would have the best chance of keeping the seal at bay.

Finally finished, Naruto walked to behind Sasuke and placed his hand over Sasuke's curse mark. Kakashi walked around Sasuke till he was facing him before crouching down to look Sasuke in the eye.

Seeing he had his attention he said "Now Sasuke, Naruto's seal will keep the affects of the curse seal away, but it won't be able to do so on its own. It relies on your will power not to use the seal. Also, if you run out of chakra, the seal will lose power and the curse seal will try to activate."

Seeing Sasuke nod, Kakashi nodded to Naruto who slammed his hand on the curse mark activating the seal. Sasuke groaned in pain as the seals traveled from the floor and his body around the curse seal. The seals compressed until they formed a ring of words around the seal. Sasuke slipped unconscious from the process and Naruto and Kakashi took him back to his room before they went to the top of the tower to talk about what they should do about the curse seal after the preliminaries that they were sure were going to take place.

The next four days passed rather quickly. The rest of the teams that would be going onto the third exam had filed in with teams 8 & 10 on team 7's heels with the sand team having come in before team 7. Team Gai came in the next day. The sound team had come in two days later. Kabuto's team was the last one to come in on the final day an hour before the deadline.

Tower Fighting Arena Second Stage Deadline

Seven teams of Genin were currently standing at attention in rows facing a giant statue of two arms in the ram sign. In front of the statue was the Hokage with Anko and Ibiki standing next to him along with the Jounins of the teams standing off to either side behind him. Naruto saw Iruka and Mizuki leaning against the walls in a corner of the room and nodded to them who returned the gesture. He knew that both Jounin in all but name were looking forward to seeing how their former students did in the preliminaries.

Naruto glanced back over his shoulder at Sakura and Sasuke. Bruises could still be seen from the past few days' activities but the two wore determined looks on their faces. The day after Sasuke's sealing, Naruto had put Sakura and Sasuke through extreme training in this very room over the past few days at night when the rest of the teams were asleep. He had wanted to make sure the seal had worked with Sasuke and wanted to make sure both he and Sakura would be able to handle anything their opponents would throw at them. He had however warned them that if they ever got in over their heads to go ahead and forfeit if they had to. He honestly didn't believe they would need to, well except for if they faced Gaara. Naruto was hoping that was his match simply because he knew he had the best chance against him.

Turning back around, Naruto saw the Hokage step up and immediately sent everything else to the back of his mind except for what his leader was about to say.

The old man cleared his throat and said "Congratulations to all of you who have managed to pass the second exam. Unfortunately, we have too many people pass this year so we are going to have to have preliminaries."

Before he could continue Kiba shouted out. "What? Why do we need to have preliminaries?"

The hokage chuckled and said "Many important people will be coming to witness the third exam including the Daimyos and nobles of the lands. Their time is important and can not be wasted, so to give them the best show we must cut down the number of contestants. Which brings me to my next point. These exams are used for more han just simply selecting Chunnin. They are a replacement for open war."

Several of the assembled Genin started muttering before the Hokage explained how the exams were a way of showcasing a village's power and earning the village missions. He was about to explain further when a Jounin with his headband in a bandana style on his head shushined in front of him already kneeling.

Coughing, the man said "Pardon me Hokage. But as proctor of the third exam, I believe I'm the one who should explain the rules."

The third nodded before saying "Of course, go ahead." He stepped back as the crouching man stood up and turned around.

The man coughed and said "My name is Hayate Gekko. I'll be the third exam's proctor. (Another cough. Some of the Genin wondered if he should even be out of bed.) Now then, as the Hokage stated, there are too many contestants here so we are going to have to hold preliminary rounds starting right now."

There was a cry of "Right now?" from Kiba before Hayate continued.

"You will not be able to call for a break if you are on a mission. If any of you feel like you cannot continue at this time, feel free to drop out. And don't worry, your teammates can still compete if you do. From here on out, it's every man for himself."

A hand was raised as Kabuto said "I'm dropping out."

Murmuring was heard throughout the teams as Hayate marked him down as dropping out in his board as Kabuto was told to leave since only those who stayed could watch.

As Kabuto passed Naruto, he asked in a low whisper. "Why are you dropping out Kabuto?"

Kabuto said in the same voice "Ran out of chakra I'm afraid."

Naruto shot him a quick "bull shit" look before Kabuto passed him. Naruto frowned before he sensed Mizuki create a noise less shadow clone that immediately shushined out of the area. (Noise less just means Mizuki is so good he can do it without the smoke and sound that comes from using it. Naruto can do the same by now but it takes a lot of focus to do so he usually doesn't bother.) Naruto noticed he was the only one on the teams who noticed and so didn't say anything. Catching Mizuki's eye though, he gave an imperceptible nod which was returned.

While this was going on, Hayate had nodded to Anko who had spoken into her headset. A panel to the left of the statue lifted up revealing a large computer screen.

Hayate then continued speaking. "Now that we have an even number, we'll begin with the one on one prelims. The computer will randomly choose two people who will stay on the floor while the rest will go to the balconies to watch till their matches are called. You lose your match if you forfeit, are knocked unconscious, or are killed. If I believe the match is already won, I will step in, but don't count on my intervention to save you."

At this, the computer started cycling through names before landing on the first match.

Hayate glanced at the board and said "Will Sasuke Uchiha and Yoroi Akado stay down while the rest go to the balconies."

The Genin who weren't fighting yet took off to the balconies. Naruto put his hand on Sasuke's shoulder and said "Give 'em hell, but watch your back. "

Sasuke nodded and faced his opponent. Naruto jogged up the stairs to rejoin Sakura who had been joined by Kakashi to watch the match. All of the rest of the Jounins had also met up with their teams to watch the matches. Iruka and Mizuki stayed at their corner where they had unobstructed views of the matches.

Hayate coughed before saying "Are you two ready?" Seeing them nod he held up his right hand before bringing it down and jumping back with a call of "Begin"

Yoroi immediately rushed towards Sasuke when the match began. Sasuke jumped back to keep his distance when he suddenly felt a spike from the curse seal causing him to stumble.

Up on the balconies, Kakashi and Naruto frowned as they sensed the spike but didn't intervene since their seal appeared to be holding.

Back with Sasuke, his opponent had taken advantage of the stumble and grabbed his head while his hand was glowing blue. Sasuke struggled before punching him in his stomach and jumped away.

Panting Sasuke said "You drained my Chakra." It wasn't a question.

Yoroi laughed and said "That's right. And there's nothing you can do about it."

Sasuke smirked and said "We'll see." before disengaging his chakra weights. Sasuke then blurred behind his opponent surprising most of the viewers and knocked him out with a chop to the neck.

Hayate stepped up and coughed before saying "Winner by knockout: Sasuke Uchiha."

Sasuke nodded before walking off while medics took Yoroi away on a stretcher.

Sasuke received congratulations on his way back to the team and a nod from Naruto and Kakashi which he returned. He completely ignored Ino trying to get his attention before he reached his team. Sakura of course talked about how she knew he could win which Sasuke acknowledged with another nod before turning to watch the rest of the matches. Sakura shot Ino the victory sign when Sasuke did this much to the platinum blonde's chagrin. Naruto chuckled when he saw this before looking back to the arena as well.

The board shuffled through names again before stopping on the next line up.

Hayate glanced at the board again and said "Will Zaku Abumi and Shino Auburame please come down."

Zaku and Shino came down from the balconies and faced each other.

Zaku said "This will all be over in a blast."

Shino just adjusted his sunglasses before Hayate called for the match to begin.

Zaku raised his palm and let loose a couple of wind streams at his opponent. The wind streams hit Shino dead on before he turned into a mass of insects that came at Zaku in a swarm. Zaku backed off before blowing the swarm apart with his arms again before Shino popped out of the ground.

Zaku turned around to face him and lifted his palms again before Shino said "Surrender. You are surrounded and cannot win."

Zaku looked around and noticed all the insects coming towards him with a swarm around Shino as well.

Smirking, Zaku spread an arm towards each group and said "I don't think so."

But as soon as he put chakra in his arms, he knew something was wrong. A second later, both of his arms exploded and fell to the ground, completely severed from his shoulders. Everyone was surprised at this while Zaku dropped to the ground screaming in pain.

Looking up to Shino who had gotten close he asked "How?"

Shino readjusted his shades before saying "You were only concerned with the highly visible insects. You never noticed when I sent individual insects into the tubes in your arms and blocked them. When you next launched your technique, the pressure had to get out somewhere, and the sides of your arms offered the path of least resistance."

The medics took Zaku away as Shino was declared the winner. Two of them had to pick up the arms that had been blown away a few feet from his body.

Most of the Genin in the room shuddered at what had happened while Naruto simply analyzed Shino's tactics.

The board shifted through names before Hayate coughed again before saying "Well Kankuro and Misumi Tsurugi please come down."

The puppeteer and Kabuto's other teammate both came down and stared at each other.

Kankuro took the wrapped up bundle off his back and said "This will be over in a flash."

His opponent just scoffed and got into a Taijustu stance.

After making sure the two were ready, Hayate began the match before jumping back out of the way.

Like his teammate, Misumi instantly launched himself at Kankuro who dodged the punches that were thrown at him. However, when Misumi was able to grab his wrist, his arm suddenly wrapped around Kankuro's arm surprising everyone watching.

Kabuto shouted out "What the!" Before Misumi wrapped his entire body around Kankuro's arms and legs with an arm around his neck.

Misumi gave an evil chuckle before saying "I can dislocate my bones and turn my body to elastic at will. Now give up before I snap your neck."

Kankuro growled and said "Never."

Misumi just shrugged before a cracking sound was heard causing most of the people in the room to flinch. Kankuro's head immediately dropped down at a sickening angle. While Misumi chuckled and said that it was his own fault for not giving up.

But before Hayate could call the match, Kankuro's head swiveled around scaring the crap out of the watchers and Misumi before it grinned. Cracks appeared revealing a wooden face as extra arms shot out and wrapped around Misumi. The bundled package that had fallen to the floor twitched before the bandages unraveled revealing Kankuro with chakra threads on his fingers. Grinning, he ordered his puppet to break every bone in his opponent's body before Misumi sunk out of its grasp in a heap

Hayate watched and thought to himself 'Talk about a turn around. I'm glad I didn't interfere when he got caught.' Coughing once more he said "Since his opponent is unable to continue, Kankuro is the winner."

Kankuro looked up towards team 7 and thought to himself 'Time to gather some information.'

Instead of heading back to where his team was, he started heading up the leaf side balcony.

There was murmuring among the Genin at the match. Sakura and Sasuke looked confused at what happened until Naruto spoke up.

"That was a good strategy having his puppet stand in for him. Though it could have backfired on him. What if someone shot a fireball at him while he was wrapped up like that?"

Kakashi nodded and said "True, but I bet he has a way of avoiding that."

By that time, Kankuro had joined them and said "I have a few ways of avoiding them. By the way, I hope there's no hard feelings from before."

Naruto shrugged and said "I think you learned your lesson."

Kankuro got mad but was able to keep his cool.

Naruto grinned to himself before he noticed the next names being selected.

He chuckled at the next line up which was two kunoichis that he knew. Sakura wondered what was so funny before she saw the names on the board and stiffened.

Coughing, Hayate called out "Will Sakura Haruno and Ino Yamanaka come down."

Sakura was about to turn to the stairs when two hands were placed on her shoulders. She turned around to see Naruto and Sasuke with their hand on a shoulder each.

Grinning, Naruto said "Show her what you've got."

Sasuke nodded and Sakura grinned before nodding as well. She took off down the stairs like she was on cloud nine.

Ino who was already on the floor scowled at how 'her' Sasuke acted and sneered at Sakura when she got down.

"It's time I showed Sasuke-kun how pathetic you really are Forehead!" Ino said with a sneer.

Sakura narrowed her eyes and said "I don't think so Ino-pig." Right after she said this, Sakura pulled off her headband before tying it to her forehead. Ino gasped before looking determined and did the same.

Up in the balcony, Kankuro chuckled and said "Looks like we're going to have a catfight."

Naruto snorted and said "You have no idea. Ino won't know what hit her."

Kankuro chuckled again before asking "Did you bring some popcorn?"

He may have been joking but he was surprised when suddenly a small container was placed in his hands after Naruto brought it out from one of his scrolls earning chuckles from Kakashi and Sasuke when they saw this.

Kankuro blinked before grinning and said "You know kid, I like you."

Naruto twitched his lips into a half smile while still looking down at the girls where he had kept his eyes the entire time.

Back on the arena floor, Hayate glanced before the two and called out "Begin!" before jumping back.

The two stared at each other before Ino suddenly threw three shuriken at Sakura. Sakura back flipped to let them pass over her before she brought her hands forward and went through hand signs that Naruto had taught her and Sasuke the first week they joined Team 7.

Ino and the others in the room looked confused while Naruto and Sasuke grinned.

The others grew even more confused when the air condensed and large puddles of water started appearing in a half circle with Sakura in the middle.

Grinning, Sakura made more hand signs before calling out "Water Style: Water Bullet Justu!"

Sakura blew out bullets of water from her mouth which were surprisingly accompanied by bullets that shot out of the puddles as well.

Ino started to frantically dodge the bullets. When they stopped coming, she tried to launch another attack but was stopped when Sakura once again ran through hand signs and called out "Water Style: Water Rush Justu!"

The water bulged out from the puddles before streams from each of them shot out at Ino before slamming her into the wall. When the water receded, Ino was slumped over unconscious.

Most of the rooks had shocked looks on their faces from seeing Sakura in action while the guys on team 7 had identical grins on their faces. Hinata nodded to herself thinking about how Naruto had obviously helped Sakura like he did her.

Hayate called the match while Sakura punched her fist in the air with a cry of "Yes!" before evaporating the puddles with the sister to her condensation justu and heading back to her teammates.

Kankuro shook his head and said "You were right. She didn't know what hit her."

Naruto nodded before looking at the board again. He rose his eyebrow and chuckled before he said "Looks like there's going to be another catfight."

Kankuro gave him a questioning glance before looking at the board as well. He rose an eyebrow as well before nodding.

The board once again showed names of two kunoichis. By that time, Sakura had gotten back to her team and gladly exchanged high fives from her teammates.

Hayate coughed and then called out "Well Tenten and Temari come down."

The two kunoichis faced each other before Hayate called to begin and once again jumping out of the way.

Tenten immediately started things off by throwing multiple kunai and shuriken at Temari. But they never made contact.

Back in the balcony, Naruto narrowed his eyes as he felt the air around the girl from the sand being manipulated.

'Wind user. Though I shouldn't be surprised considering that fan on her back. Lets see how good she is.'

Back on the floor, Temari was taunting Tenten about supposedly missing her and bad mouthing her aim. Tenten got mad and starting launching storms of weapons at Temari who simply took out her fan and started blowing the flying metal away. Temari opened her fan up each time Tenten tried to hit her and two moons had appeared.

Temari smirked at Tenten and said "See those moons? There's three of them on my fan. Once the third moon comes out, this match is over."

At this, Naruto frowned.

Tenten gritted her teeth before pulling out two scrolls before activating them. They shot up into the air in a double helix formation. Tenten jumped to the top and starting throwing the weapons that appeared. All of the weapons were shifted from their trajectory by wind though. Not one to give up, Tenten pulled on the wires on the weapons before sending them all at once at Temari again.

Temari snapped open her fan all the way and called out her attack "Wind Style: Whirling Cyclone Justu!"

The wind blew away the weapons before encircling Tenten who was still in the air in a tornado.

She screamed as the wind started tearing into her before dropping down towards Temari's fan which she had positioned to 'catch' her.

But before Tenten could potentially break her back on the battle fan, a second, smaller tornado appeared underneath her surprising Temari and everyone else who looked on as the tornado moved to the balcony and deposited Tenten into Naruto's arms bridal style earning a small blush from Tenten in the process. Hinata got a jealous look for a second before getting her emotions under control and smiling at how Naruto had helped Tenten.

Kankuro who was still standing beside him stared down at shock with his jaw dropped while Naruto took a quick glance at his former classmate. Everyone else besides the rest of Team 7 was in similar shock since Naruto had made no hand signs or called out any techniques.

Seeing that none of the cuts were life threatening, he glanced down at Temari with a hard look before walking over to Gai and placing his student in his arms.

Gai said something along the lines of thanks for saving his youthful student with his own winds of youth which Naruto just nodded to before walking back his own team.

Hayate snapped out of his stupor and declared Temari as the victor since Naruto had interfered, even though everyone in the room knew the result would be the same without him interfering, before the board showed the next match.

Naruto heard a groan of "Troublesome" from his right and grinned at how it was about time for the lazy boy to actually do some work.

Hayate once again coughed before saying "Will Shikamaru Nara and Kin Tsuchi please come down."

When Shikamaru came down he complained about how he had to fight a girl. Said girl took offense to that and looked ready to kill.

Hayate quickly began the match and jumped back.

The fight, if you could call it that, lasted little longer than Sakura's. Shikamaru ended up taking advantage of Kin's positioning and forced her to knock herself out by banging the back of her head against the wall after he used his shadow possession justu.

Naruto shook his head as Hayate called the match thinking that while it was a good strategy, it was still a lazy way to win by getting your opponent to knock themselves out.

Glancing up at the board once again, Naruto got a fox grin as he called out "Finally!" before hopping onto the rail and shooting himself down to Hayate in one smooth motion earning smirks from his teammates and raised eyebrows from everyone else. Kankuro looked at the board and realized why he had been so excited.

Hayate smiled at his enthusiasm before coughing once and saying "Well Kiba Inuzuka please join us?"

Kiba got a hard look on his face before taking the stairs down to the arena floor.

Once both were in place, Hayate said "The seventh round battle of Naruto Uzumaki versus Kiba Inuzuka. You may begin when ready." He jumped out of the way in a hurry since he knew Naruto was a real speed demon when he wanted to be. No pun intended.

However, Naruto just stood there in a half ready position looking at Kiba.

Kiba finally couldn't take it and said "I still remember what you said back in that classroom. I'm going to make you eat those words and put YOU in YOUR place."

Naruto cocked his eyebrow and said "In your dreams Inuzuka. Remember what my clone said in the forest? You're a tracker specialist, I'm primarily heavy assault oriented. I out class you in a fight."

Kiba growled low in his throat before jumping back and throwing smoke bombs at Naruto. Not giving him any chance to react, he gave Akamaru a food pill and transformed himself and Akamaru into feral looking versions of himself. Running at high speed to the smoke cloud, the two launched themselves into sideways tornados and started tearing through the smokescreen multiple times using scent to lock onto Naruto's position.

This went on for five minutes with everyone watching on edge although Team 7 was more confused than anything since Naruto usually wasn't one to wait this long before acting and they knew they would know when that happened.

Finally, the two drills stopped spinning to reveal a panting Kiba and an untransformed Akamaru as the smokescreen thinned revealing Naruto standing with his arms crossed without a single scratch on him much to most of the watchers' surprise.

Cocking an eyebrow, Naruto said "You done making a fool of yourself now?"

Kiba growled and said "How? I had your scent. Why couldn't I hit you? I was dead on target and you shouldn't have been able to detect me in that smokescreen."

Naruto smirked and tapped his nose before saying "You're not the only one who uses his nose Inuzuka. As for not hitting me, If I move to fast for you to track my movements by scent, then it's easy to avoid you without seeming to move."

The rooks up in the balconies were staring at awe at Naruto while Team 7 just shook their heads. The sand team and last member of the sound team were wondering when the blond was actually going to fight.

Kiba growled before rushing towards Naruto by himself and spinning into a drill for a head on assault.

Naruto watched him coming before putting his right arm in front of his left shoulder. As soon as Kiba was in range, Naruto smacked him away from him. (Think what Cell did to Hercule at the Cell Games. Same thing.) Everyone's jaws dropped as Kiba's funnel fluctuated before slamming into the wall at a forty five degree angle from Naruto's position above everybody's head.

Cracks spider webbed away from him as he dropped onto the balcony clutching his head from where he had hit. It wouldn't have been so bad if he was expecting to hit the wall and took proper action, but he had expected to hit flesh not concrete. Big difference in hardness between the two.

Without even looking, Naruto called over his shoulder "You done dog breath? Or do you still think you can take me?"

Kiba roared in anger before launching himself at Naruto who felt him coming from the wind currents he generated on his way to the blond.

Glancing up at Temari real quick, Naruto called out as his hands blurred "Let me show you a real wind justu! Wind Style: Grand Tornado Justu!"

Everyone's eyes widened as a tornado that was five feet at its base and ended at sixty feet wide at its top and reaching to the ceiling suddenly appeared with Naruto in its center. Temari's jaw once again dropped when she saw how big the tornado was and suddenly was glad she hadn't faced the blond. She knew for a fact he had a lot better control with their element than she did.

Kiba never stood a chance as he shot right into the tornado and started being thrown around inside at high speeds. Naruto refrained from having the justu cut the rook. Instead he got a fox grin on his face as the tornado took the Inuzuka for a ride for a good minute and a half. Finally deciding the poor boy had enough, Naruto slowly released the technique and lowered Kiba to the floor who had spirals in his eyes before passing out from being so dizzy.

After he set Kiba down as gently as he could, Naruto slowly exhaled before completely dropping his technique. The last few wisps of wind died down as Naruto's hair which had constantly been blowing around a little from being so close to the ring of wind around him fell back to its normal position.

Everyone was quite for a while as they watched trying to get over the fact that Naruto could create such a huge tornado. Only Kakashi seemed unfazed who was smiling to himself at how his favorite student had fought.

'He fought like a true shinobi. He took Kiba's advantages that the boy would normally have and turned them against him. He also stayed calm while provoking his opponent to act rashly. And finally, that tornado was rather impressive. I've never seen him hold one that big for so long. Normally he can only hold them at that size for half a minute at most before losing control.'

Hayate finally got out of his stupor and said "Uh, winner by knockout: Naruto Uzumaki."

Some of the rooks started cheering for Naruto and even a couple of the Jounin and the Hokage as well as Mizuki and Iruka gave a light applause at Naruto's performance which he gave a small bow to earning some chuckles in the process. He then jumped from his spot on the floor backwards over the rail of the balcony before back flipping and landing back in his original spot much to his teammates amusement.

"Show off." Sasuke said earning a chuckle from Naruto who said "And proud of it!"


	23. Chunnin Exams Prelims Part 2

Chunnin Exams: Prelim part 2/ Hinata's and Lee's Stand

Author's Notes: I have had one reader say he was glad that I kept the fights short, but still show off Naruto being particularly bad-ass. (pardon my language. Lol) I sincerely hope he can forgive me for the next two lineups. I have had another ask about the Hinata/Neji fight. To you, and others reading this: Get ready for a bit of a twist. And now without further ado, it's time to get started.

"Show Off."

"And proud of it!"

Hinata giggled as she heard this. She then glanced over to the board and immediately stiffened. Naruto, who had looked over when he heard her, glanced over himself and got a more serious look as well.

Hayate coughed while looking back at the board before saying "Will Hinata Hyuga and Neji Hyuga please come down."

Hinata and Neji headed to the stairs. When she got close to Team 7, Naruto put a hand on her shoulder. Looking up at him, he smiled and said "Relax Hinata, I know you'll do just fine out there."

Hinata suddenly let her shoulders loose where she had unconsciously tensed them and nodded before matching his smile.

"Thanks Naruto."

Naruto nodded and leaned in before placing a kiss on her cheek before sending her down. Hinata had a small blush as she went down the stairs but quickly got in under control before she reached the bottom.

Back on the balcony, Naruto leaned against the railing and said "I'm looking forward to Neji's face when he finds out she's not the timid little girl she once was."

Kakashi eye smiled and nodded before saying "Yes, she has greatly improved in the past half year. You did a good job Naruto."

Naruto rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment and said "Well, it wasn't just me. You, Matto, and Heza helped just as much."

Kakashi just kept eye smiling as he said "But it was you who took the first step when others wouldn't. That makes your part all the more important."

Naruto didn't say anything to that since they were about ready to get started on the floor.

Down there, Neji was trying to get Hinata to forfeit by preying on a lack of confidence that was no longer there.

Neji frowned as he said "Word of advice lady Hinata. You should forfeit."

Hinata frowned as well and said "And why Neji, would I want to forfeit?"

Neji's frown grew as he said "It is not in your nature to cause harm to others. You are not made for being a ninja. The only reason why you entered this exam was so not to let your teammates down. Now there is no reason for you to continue this charade. So I will say again, forfeit. It is your fate to fail here any way."

Hinata sighed and closed her eyes while slightly lowering her head. After a second, her head snapped up and her eyes shot open with her Byakugan activated without a single seal or call and she glared at Neji with such intensity he actually took a reflexive half step back.

Still glaring Hinata said "You are wrong Neji. I am not the so called weak main branch member I was before. And as for fate, you can shove it up your rear end as far as I care."

The rooks along with all of the members of Team 7 burst out laughing while Team Gai looked on in shock. They were not expecting this from the gentle Hinata they had seen occasionally.

Back on the floor, Neji grew angry and activated his own Byakugan before saying "Proctor, start the match. Nothing more is going to be said here."

Hinata got a small twitch to her lips and said "Agreed."

Hayate quickly called the match before getting clear.

As soon as the word "Begin" left the proctor's mouth, Neji shot forward and launched a right palm filled with chakra at Hinata who stayed where she was, letting her cousin come to her. Once he was close enough, Hinata put chakra in her own right palm and started meeting Neji palm strike for palm strike. Where ever Neji sent an attack, Hinata would counter with her own palm meeting Neji's causing small bursts of chakra to form that looked like miniature explosions.

Back on the balcony, Naruto started grinning as he realized what Hinata's plan was.

Back on the floor, Hinata started adding offensive maneuvers of her own forcing Neji to either divert those attacks or try and do the same as what Hinata was doing as well. Not doing either risked serious injury if her palms were able to make contact.

However, after five minutes of hard attacking, their chakra stores started to seriously drop. Neji could still go on for a while but Hinata was starting to run low. Neji noticing this stepped up his attacks which Hinata immediately rose up to.

But just as Neji was about to score a disabling hit, Hinata disengaged and jumped back getting enough distance to where she could dodge her cousin if he tried to rush her.

Neji however just got in a relaxed stance with a smug look on his face and said "You see lady Hinata? It is pointless for you to continue. You barely have any chakra left while I still have plenty. Give up now. You can not fight fate."

Hinata just frowned for a second before saying "I thought I told you to shove that fate crap up your rear end. We are not bound to fate Neji. That is the coward's view. And for one who says one can not deny fate, you sure as hell appear to be trying your best to."

Neji growled, but before he could do anything, Hinata took her left pointer and middle fingers and pressed them against a spot along the middle of her neck on that side. All of a sudden, a small seal appeared under her fingers before it started spreading along her body. The marks began following the heiress' chakra network going to each chakra point. Visible chakra started flowing from the origin of the seal before sinking into the skin after it took less than a second to shoot down the lines. Five seconds later, Hinata's chakra reserves were completely filled and the chakra stopped being visible as it slowed down to a slower pace. However, to a Byakugan or Sharingan user, the chakra was still flowing through the seal. It was constantly refilling the reserves making it seem like Hinata had infinite reserves.

Neji had a shocked look on his face as he witnessed this.

Hinata saw this and grinned. "What do you think Neji? Naruto made me this seal back when he started teaching me while I still was in the academy. It takes a certain percentage of my total chakra from my reserves each day and adds it to another reserve inside it. When I need to, I can release that chakra back into my system for a quick refill if I ever run out. And since I haven't used the seal in over four months, I have quite the reserve right now. And since the seal forms directly over my chakra lines, none of it is wasted as it goes into them."

Among the Jounin, one of them raised an eyebrow at how similar it seemed to be with his own seal.

Many of the other occupants in the room were looking at Naruto who was grinning.

Sasuke who had raised an eyebrow asked "Why didn't you give us that seal?" Sakura was silently wondering the same thing.

Naruto shrugged and said "Didn't see the point really. You guys don't shoot chakra out of your palms to attack. Therefore, you wouldn't need a complete refill in a number of seconds when you run out. Popping a soldier pill would work just as well for you guys. Also there is a problem with the seal that Hinata has to deal with once this is over. The seal may restore your chakra, but after it is withdrawn, it immediately drains the percentage of chakra it takes each day to begin refilling it from what you currently have. And although if you have a small amount left it takes an even smaller amount, the effects are less obvious if you have a larger reserve to draw from. Hinata is normally only supposed to use it when she has no choice and must do her best to end any fight with it as quickly as possible. Here though, with medics around, she can go a bit farther than normal with it."

Sasuke nodded when he heard the explanation. This seal of Naruto's was really an emergency back up plan that should not be used lightly. Here though, she did not need to fear the problems of chakra exhaustion that came from using it too long in a dangerous area.

As soon as Hinata had finished explaining, she got in a stance before shooting towards her cousin. Neji got ready to engage again before he got the shock of his life.

Where before Hinata had been fighting strictly along the lines of the strict forms of the Gentle Fist, she now started adding the snake style into her forms and even began adding kicks that had chakra coming from her feet.

Neji was hard pressed to keep himself from being injured from the unexpected attacks. He began receiving bruises on his arms where he was forced to block the attacks when he couldn't properly divert them.

This went on for another ten minutes before Neji was suddenly able to get a lucky shot on Hinata's stomach.

The chakra blow was enough to disable the seal enough that it retracted.

Hinata saw this and instantly disengaged again to figure out what was wrong.

Naruto frowned before shouting out "Don't worry about it Hinata! He just triggered the fail safe that happens if you get a chakra transfusion. The seal won't activate any of its features for another twenty four hours now. You should still be close to full though." (What he didn't say out loud so that the secret wouldn't be lost was that the influx of foreign chakra had to be exactly where the primary coil started where your chakra originated. It was a fail safe for if she needed a transfusion so that the seal doesn't steal it when she really needed it.)

Hinata nodded before getting into her stance. Neji was panting all the while from having to use as much chakra as he had. One thing Hyugas were not known for being was stamina freaks.

All of a sudden, Hinata flinched in pain and held her hand against the area that Neji had struck. Neji saw this and smirked when he realized that he had not only stopped the seal from continuing its work, but also caused some kind of internal injury. Taking advantage of Hinata's moment of distraction, he shot off towards her.

Hinata quickly reacted and they continued. But it soon became obvious that Hinata was losing effectiveness as she tried to deal with the pain from Neji's earlier strike.

She was able to go for another four minutes of high speed attacks before she started running low again. Neji then got in another strike close to the same area. Hinata disengaged for a third time grimacing in pain.

Neji let her before saying "Admit it lady Hinata! It is pointless to go against your fate! Give up! I won't give you another warning."

Hinata got into her stance as best she could before saying in a calm voice "No."

Neji got an even harder look on his face than before and said "fine."

He rushed towards Hinata ready to make it so that she never got up again.

All of the Leaf Jounin and the proctor were about to stop him when Naruto once again took the matter out of their hands.

Before any of the Jounin besides Kakashi and Gai could react, there was a small burst of chakra as Gentle Fist strike met another mixed in with wind chakra.

Neji's eyes widened as Naruto stood in a gentle fist stance with his right palm a quarter inch away from his own palm with chakra still flowing around his hand and wind spinning around his palm as well. Neji's eyes widened even further as blood started dripping from his hand where the wind chakra had cut small cuts into it.

Combined with the moving wind around his hand it was a clear message that if he wanted to Naruto could have cut Neji's entire hand off with nothing but his wind chakra.

Naruto had a hard look on his face as the Jounin as well as Mizuki and Iruka all appeared a second after he had, surrounding the small group with a hand each on either Neji's arm of shoulder to keep him from going forward any more. Hayate actually had his pointer finger on Neji's forehead.

Keeping his hard look, Naruto said "That was way out of line Neji. The job of the branch family is to protect the main branch, not kill them. Sure your family is messed up in that regard, but taking it out on Hinata who has not only never done anything like what the rest of the main branch has done but argued against it is not only wrong but disgusting. I would have thought you would have known better."

Neji just scoffed and said "This is a clan matter, you have no right to ridicule me on that."

Before Naruto could reply, Gai said "Be that as it may Neji, you promised me you would leave the problems between the branch and main families out of this."

Before anyone could say anything else, Hinata started wobbling before toppling forward.

Naruto quickly caught her by stepping closer so she leaned against him and wrapped an arm around her before saying "Easy Hinata, I got ya."

Hinata nodded and said "Thanks. I'll be alright though."

A medic came and after examining her said "She's right, she should be fine. Just needs some rest. Luckily those strikes weren't too serious. It would have been worse if they hit any of her organs. She just needs some rest right now. She should get a proper checkup by the end of the day though."

Naruto nodded before picking Hinata up bridal style earning a small eep from her. Jumping from where he was standing, he landed on the rail in front of her teammates before hopping down.

Setting her down gently, he said "You did good Hinata." And with that he gave her a quick kiss.

Hinata suddenly blushed something fierce as she got on cloud nine as Naruto was actually kissing her on the lips.

As Naruto pulled away, Hinata had a smile on her face as she fainted from pure bliss. Naruto chuckled as he once again caught her, much to Kurenai's amusement. Setting her down against the wall where she could rest, he gently brushed a strand of hair away from her face.

Smiling when he saw her also smile in her sleep he said "Rest well Hinata." He stood up and walked back over to his teammates and Kankuro who had raised eyebrows at him much like one of his favorite teachers. He gave them the exact same look as he did then before he once again leaned against the rail earning chuckles from the small group.

Meanwhile back on the floor, Mizuki with a grin turned to Iruka and said "Pay up."

Iruka grumbled before pulling out fifty dollars and slapping it into Mizuki's raised palm as he said "Yeah, yeah."

Seeing the confused looks from the rest of the group, Mizuki said "I bet Iruka fifty bucks that Hinata would faint when Naruto actually got around to kissing her on her lips the first time."

The rest of the adults chuckled as Kurenai frowned a little before joining in. Kakashi eye smiled before joining the rest of his team with the rest of the Jounin following suit.

Neji was quickly declared the winner due to interference although the same result would have happened once again even if Naruto hadn't interfered. This time though was because he was simply faster by a second than the others.

The board shifted once more and Gaara immediately sand body flickered to the floor. Looking up at the leaf side he said "Don't keep me waiting."

The last two leaf Genin looked at the board and had different reactions.

Chouji sighed in relief while Lee started bouncing around glad that it was finally his turn to fight.

But before he could rush down there, he found his rival's hand on his shoulder. Turning, he saw the seriousness on Naruto's face and asked "What is it my youthful eternal rival?"

Naruto was so serious he didn't he even look like he heard the youthful bit. Keeping a serious face he said "Watch how you deal with him Lee. He uses sand. You are going to have to hit him hard, and hit him fast."

Lee nodded and then hopped down much the same way Naruto did for his match. Naruto could only sigh and head back to his team. He had done what he could for his rival. He only hoped it would be enough. He was sure that Lee stood just as much chance against Gaara as he did. However, as the saying went, fight fire with fire. He had REALLY hoped he would be the one to fight his fellow Jinchurikki.

As he reached his spot next to Kankuro, he thought 'Don't die out there Lee.'

Kankuro shook his head and said "I don't know what your friend can do, but he's got no shot at winning against Gaara. He won't even be able to land a single hit."

Naruto spared him with a quick sideways glance before looking back down. Frowning, he said "You may think that, but Lee and I are very similar. We've both been called failures. But there is a reason why we're rivals. This village has many so called "Geniuses." That is a term that has been thrown out way to often in this village. It is easy to be great if you have a bloodline giving you aid. But Gai-sensei calls me and Lee geniuses of another kind. He calls us geniuses of hard work. We didn't have anything helping us get to where we are today. We have actually been handicapped when it comes down to it. But neither of us ever gave up. We still haven't. You don't find that kind of determination in most people. And THAT is why Lee and I have the best chance against your brother. We simply DON'T quit. EVER."

Kankuro didn't have anything to say about that and so remained silent. Gai and Kakashi, who had heard Naruto both smiled in their own ways after hearing him.

Sasuke and Sakura had remained silent the whole time thinking about what he said.

Gaara's cork came off of his gourd and sand began pouring out of his gourd as he looked intently at Lee who was staring just as hard. Seeing the two were ready, Hayate called "Begin."

As soon as the match was begun, Lee took Naruto's words to heart and starting battering Gaara's defenses with high speed attacks. However, Gaara's sand kept popping up before he got close blocking him and then counter attacking. Lee was doing his best to both attack and dodge but with his weights on it just wasn't happening in his favor. He was fast enough to dodge but not attack. All the while, Naruto was watching with a serious look on his face as watched Lee fight. After a few minutes, Lee back flipped from a series of sand hands reaching for him before jumping to land on the tip of the statue in a crouch.

All of a sudden, Gai shouted four words that Naruto knew would be the trigger for true controlled chaos.

"Take them off Lee!"

Lee gave a salute before he pulled his weights off before standing up with the weights in his hand.

Everyone besides Team 7 and Team Gai were wondering what use dropping a few pounds would do.

That all changed when Lee dropped them. Naruto grinned at everyone else's face when they not only saw the explosion of dust but felt the ground shake from the impact.

Naruto raised an eyebrow at Gai and asked "How much? Since last month?"

Gai grinned and said "150 each."

Naruto just shook his head as he continued grinning before saying "Looks like he's got ten more on now than I do. This makes close to three thousand now." Kankuro was wondering just what kind of freaks the leaf produced. Kakashi just sighed at this while shaking his own head.

Lee then rushed Gaara with his attacks. Each attack kept getting closer and closer until Lee finally got a hit in.

The members of the Sand team and their Jounin got wide eyes as Lee's downward flip kick actually put a scratch on Gaara's face.

Glancing at Kankuro's shocked face for the briefest of seconds, Naruto grinned and said "What was that about not landing a single hit?"

Back on the floor, Lee went and launched a kick right into Gaara's face. Gaara wheeled backwards but to everyone not on the Sand team's surprise, Instead of a bruise or broken bone, the result of the kick was a chunk of sand falling off of Gaara's face.

Naruto raised an eyebrow at this.

"Sand armor. Why am I not surprised? Bet that thing is a killer on his reserves though."

Kankuro looked at Naruto and wondered how he had figured that last bit out but kept watching the match. When he looked down though, he suddenly stiffened.

Naruto saw this and asked "What is it?"

Kankuro swallowed before saying "Gaara has that look on his face."

Naruto frowned and looked closer at Gaara where he had a bloodthirsty look on his face.

Kankuro continued "Your friend doesn't have much longer I'm afraid. He will be toyed with and then killed."

Naruto's frown grew bigger as he deactivated his chakra weights for the first time since he reached the tower. If what Kankuro said was true, he would need all the speed he could get. It had taken him two seconds to reach Neji as fast as he did. Something told him he would have to be even faster soon.

Lee glanced up and saw Gai smiling as he was watching the match and smiled in turn. He then quickly dodged a sand attack before rushing right at Gaara. A few more attacks later and Gaara's armor was being torn to shreds. Gaara managed to get Lee to back offthough who was starting to pant a little. Looking up at Gai once again, Lee silently asked and Gai just as silently nodded.

Getting a rather pleased look on his face, Lee began unwrapping the bandages on his arm.

Naruto looked shocked for a minute before he thought 'Things are about to get interesting.'

Lee took off like a rocket running around Gaara forming a small ring of wind in the process. He then kicked Gaara straight up before jumping behind him. Wrapping his bandages around Gaara, Lee started spinning before slamming Gaara down onto the floor with a cry of "Primary Lotus!" Hard.

Lee skidded to a stop about twenty feet away from Gaara panting a little more. Gaara however stood up again with his sand armor once again repairing itself. Most of the present Genin actually shuddered as they saw the look in his eyes.

Sand started going after Lee with a vengeance while Lee did his best to dodge. However, the Primary Lotus took a lot out of Lee and he wasn't able to dodge everything. Up against the wall, Lee was forced to withstand a wave of sand that really did a number on him. Lee held his hands out while panting up a storm.

Deciding enough was enough, Gai considered for a few seconds before nodding to himelf and said "Lee! Open them!"

Almost everyone was confused, but Lee saluted and shouted "Roger!"

Crossing his arms, he began to draw power from inside himself. Chakra started flowing around him as he began opening his celestial gates one after another.

On the balcony, Naruto grinned before he said "This is it. If the gates don't give Lee the edge he needs, I don't know what will."

Kankuro frowned and was about to ask what he meant by gates when Lee suddenly practically exploded in a chakra pulse causing his skin to turn red and his eyes to turn completely white shocking pretty much everyone in the room except a few.

Lee once again shot Gaara up into the air and started beating him around so hard and fast that it made Naruto's pinball maneuver back in the forest look like a kitten playing with a ball of yarn. He then wrapped Gaara in one of his ribbons and kicked Gaara away before pulling on the ribbon bringing him back numerous times like a paddle ball.

When he was finished, Lee once again smashed Gaara down onto the floor creating a crater where he landed. Lee himself landed a short distance. He seemed to be extremely tired and having trouble getting enough oxygen after the maneuvers he just pulled.

Gaara wasn't in any better shape. Both looked like they wouldn't be able to move for a while. However, Gaara lifted one of his arms and sand began to rise up from around him and head towards Lee.

Lee tried to get away but opening the gates really did a number on his body and his left leg and arm ended up being wrapped in sand.

Seeing the look in Gaara's eyes and having a fairly good idea what was coming next, Naruto shot off toward his rival's side and before Gaara could further injure the green beast started a small, low powered tornado right over Lee surprising everyone who was watching including Lee. The tornado sucked all the sand off of his friend and then positioned itself in between Naruto and Gaara.

Gaara looked confused at this.

"Why do you continue to protect others around you?"

Naruto had a hard look on his face and said "Because I care about them. I will do anything to protect my friends."

Gaara looked even more confused as he stood up. Turning back to the foreign side balcony, he walked off.

Naruto dropped his tornado and the sand went back inside Gaara's gourd.

Hayate called Gaara winner due to interference which no one cared to argue. Once again Naruto had interfered when things looked too bad for one of the contestants. Gai had dropped down to check on his student and the medics had come to do the same. Their conclusion was that Lee had a ton of torn muscle and extreme exhaustion from opening the gates. He would be able to fight another day though.

As the medics took Lee off to the hospital, Naruto absentmindedly realized that he had interfered in all three of Team Gai's matches. Shaking his head at that thought, he headed back up to the balcony while once again listening to Gai talking about how his winds of youth once again saved one of his youthful students.

Once everyone was clear of the floor, Hayate called out "Well Chouji Akimichi and Dosu Kinuta please come down."

(For this fight, remember that not only did Naruto stop the sound nin before the first test but also that Team 10 never fought them in the forest. Therefore, they have no idea what Dosu does.)

The final match of the preliminaries were really anti-climatic. As soon as the fight began, Dosu flicked a finger against the amplifier on his arm and sent a focused blast of sound waves at Chouji. Chouji wasn't the only one affected though. While Chouji immediately fell down with swirls in his eyes, up in the balconies, Naruto winced as he heard the sound waves while his father did the same.

Seeing everyone looking at him he explained. "Just as I've gotta really good sense of smell, I have just as good a sense of hearing. When that sound nin down there flicked that piece of metal strapped to his arm, it caused sound waves to appear. He focused them towards Akimichi so he got the most of the blast, but I still heard it."

Everyone got an "oh" look on their faces as Hayate called the match.

The hokage called all of the winners down to the floor once Chouji regained consciousness.

'Hmm, so we have 1 sound, 6 leaf, and 3 sand participants. Good batch this year.' The old man thought while he waited.

Once everyone was lined up the old man said "Congratulations on those who have passed. I know you will give our visiting dignitaries a very good show in a month's time. Now then, it's time to explain the third exam. But first Anko here will be passing a box around. Take a paper and we'll explain once everyone has a number."

(I'm messing up the numbers a little. Same matches, their just at different times. This is just cause I want these guys to have a chance before Naruto starts blowing stuff up after his fight.)

Once everyone had a number, he said "Now then, starting from left to right, call out your numbers."

Dosu "3"

Naruto "8"

Sakura "4"

Sasuke "9"

Shikamaru "1"

Neji "7"

Shino "5"

Temari "2"

Kankuro "6"

Gaara "10"

Ibiki wrote something down on his clipboard before turning it to face the group.

"This is the line up for the final exam in one month" He said.

Various thoughts went through the contestant's minds.

'Me against Sasuke's teammate eh?' Dosu thought glancing at the kunoichi closest to him.

'Neji and me right off the bat eh? Well this should be interesting.' Naruto thought while cocking his eyebrow.

'Me against the mummy guy? How am I going to do that? He uses sound. Maybe Naruto well have some ideas.' Sakura frowned as she glanced towards Dosu noticing him looking at her for a second as well.

'I'm fighting Gaara? Perfect. I can test myself and see where I stand next to HIM' Sasuke had a confident smirk on his face.

'Troublesome. Not only am I fighting another girl right off the bat, I'm the first match.' Guess who said that?

'Me against the failure? Fate has blessed me with an easy win.' Neji had a smug look on his face. (He obviously forgot what happened during the fight between him and Hinata.)

'…' Shino just studied the sheet and began thinking of methods for fighting puppeteers.

'Great, I get the lazy boy to fight against first. Oh well, should be interesting fighting either the sound guy or that blondes' teammate in the second round.'

'Me against the Uchiha. He will prove my existence.' Gaara could feel 'mother' shifting restlessly at the thought.

Once everyone had a chance to see who they were fighting first, the old man continued "Now then, you all have a month until your matches. Train hard and prepare new strategies to defeat your opponent because you can be sure they will be as well."


	24. Chunnin Exams: Jinchurikki Clash

Chunnin Exams: Jinchurikki Clash

"Now then, you all have a month until your matches. Train hard and prepare new strategies to defeat your opponent because you can be sure they will be as well."

With that, the old man shushined away as the Jounin came to talk to their students who had passed.

Kakashi came up with an eye smile and said "Well done you three. You guys were the only leaf team to have all of its members pass to the third round. But that aside, we need to get you guys ready for your matches that are coming up. I am going to find suitable teachers for you guys. Meet at Training Ground 7 at eight tomorrow morning."

Sakura and Sasuke looked confused and Sakura asked "But Kakashi-sensei, why can't you just train us all?"

Kakashi eye smiled before saying "I'm afraid it's the rules. A Jounin sensei can not train more than one of his students who has passed to the third exam. That way no one has any unfair advantages since everyone has the potential of fighting everyone else. Now then, does anyone want to come with me or are you guys going to stay here for a little longer?"

Sakura and Sasuke decided to leave with Kakashi while Naruto wanted to stay, claiming that he wanted to talk to Iruka and Mizuki. It wasn't a complete lie.

Putting a hand on each of the rook's shoulders, Kakashi said "See you tomorrow Naruto." before he shushined away.

Naruto watched as the rest of the Genin teams whose members were still in the room hooked up with their Jounin team leaders and head back out to the forest or allowing the Jounin to shushin out of the area as well. He noted absently that the Sand team decided to go through the forest again.

Hinata waved to him with a smile which Naruto returned before Kurenai shushined her team out.

Mizuki and Iruka had walked up to him while this was going on. Both were wearing smiles, but Mizuki's turned teasing as he said "So you finally got around to kissing her eh? I'd say its about time. Our little Naruto's finally grown up."

Naruto cocked his head as he replied.

"Me and my team was the only one from the leaf to get all our members through the prelims and the first thing you talk about is my love life? I think you need to work on your priorities."

Iruka laughed and Mizuki got a mock hurt look before joining in.

Getting serious he said "Seriously though Naruto, good job out there. You kept your cool while making Kiba loose his cool. You fought just like a real shinobi should."

Iruka smiled before adding his own two cents.

"That and you obviously did a good job helping Kakashi train Sasuke and Sakura. Sakura was never one to take her training seriously during the academy and while Sasuke wasn't so bad, he never really took most of the stuff we taught seriously either. I don't know what you did to those two, but it definitely worked."

Naruto just smiled before rubbing his head and said "Yeah, well you would be surprised what you can do with the proper motivation."

Iruka and Mizuki chuckled at this before Iruka said "By the way Naruto, that seal you put on Hinata. Did you ever give it to anyone else?"

Naruto shook his head before saying "No, I didn't think I should. It's really only a last resort for Hinata for when she gets in a fight and runs out of chakra. I don't think I will let anyone else use it either. Though now that she's used it out in the open, everyone else is going to want one. Good luck trying to copy it though. That seal took a whole month for me to come up with it. And that was with a good hundred clones helping. It can't be copied and I'm not just going to hand it out."

Iruka and Mizuki nodded since they knew that Naruto took pride in his sealing ability. Anyone who wanted that seal would be hard pressed to copy it and Naruto was notorious for not trusting anyone else with any of the major seals that he made.

Mizuki then frowned and said "I know how you feel about your seals Naruto, but once word gets around about that recharge seal your going to have practically everyone breathing down your neck for one. God knows the council will try to demand for you to give them the seal. Especially the Hyugas. That seal would really increase their abilities."

Naruto just frowned before saying "Let them try. The only one who can order me to do that is the Hokage and he already knows about this. We both agree that no one else should have the seal unless certain circumstances warrant the need to be put on someone."

Iruka and Mizuki nodded again before the group broke up with the two heading back to the village via shushin.

Naruto stayed on the arena floor for a short while thinking about the storm with the council that was sure to come before he turned around and headed out of the tower. He had a brother jinchurikki to track down.

One hour later

The sand team was jumping through the forest back towards the village at a leisurely pace. Their Jounin sensei, Baki, was keeping their speed down so that they could discuss their plans in relative secrecy. The rest of the teams had already passed them since no one really wanted to stay in the forest for too long. All of a sudden, they saw Naruto on a tree branch a short distance ahead of them.

The sand team stiffened as they landed on a branch in front of him.

Baki narrowed his eyes as he thought 'What is he doing here?' Speaking out loud he said "What is it you want leaf nin? If it is just to chat then be on your way. We have to prepare for the final exam."

Naruto frowned at him before looking at Gaara and said "Tell Shukkaku that Kyubi says hi."

Gaara's teammates looked confused, but Gaara suddenly clutched his head as the demon inside of him started yelling.

He suddenly shot his head up as he said "Mother wants your blood." Right after he said that, sand shot straight towards Naruto.

Naruto raised his eyebrow and said "Well tell your mother that my blood tastes bad." Right as he said this, the sand completely surrounded him.

Gaara got a mad gleam in his eyes as he commanded his sand to crush Naruto. His teammates grew wide eyed as the sand completely crushed the blond.

However the four grew confused when instead of seeing a fountain of blood, they heard a poofing sound and smoke came out instead.

All of a sudden, Naruto rose out of the tree branch where his shadow clone was and said "Now is that anyway to treat someone who just wants to talk?"

Four pairs of eyes bugged out before Gaara's sand once again tried to crush him. Naruto just yawned and said "Talk about a one trick pony." before a tornado started forming around Naruto and sucking up all the sand. He then grinned and created a fireball in his hand and shoved it into the tornado turning it into a fire vortex.

Naruto kept the vortex up for ten seconds before dropping it. Glass fell down and shattered when this happened.

Grinning, Naruto said "You got two choices here Gaara. Either we go find somewhere private and have a nice little chat between two brothers. OR you can do your best to kill me and I beat you senseless before we have that talk. Either way, you and I have a lot to talk about."

Baki, Temari, and Kankuro watched everything with wide eyes as they shared one thought 'Who the hell is this guy?"

Gaara growled before launching sand shuriken at Naruto who instantly unsealed his fox sword that he received from the foxes when his father trained him in sword fighting. As the shurikens reached him, he channeled chakra into the blade causing it to erupt in flame before he casually deflected the shuriken. As they flew away from him, they shattered as they hit the trees around him. The extreme heat from the blade had instantly turned them into glass.

Cutting the fire chakra from his elemental chakra blade, Naruto sealed it back onto the storage seal on his wrist and said "Had enough?"

Gaara growled in frustration as sand began covering his left arm and leg as well as half of his face. Seeing this, his team instantly high tailed it out of there as one thought ran through their heads. 'He's going demon! We gotta get out of here!'

Naruto cocked his head as he watched.

Gaara said with blood lust and drool coming from the transformed side of his face. "Uzumaki! You will prove my existence!"

Naruto shot an eyebrow out and said "Prove your existence?"

Gaara growled and said "Your so called friend was worthy of proving my existence. However, I can tell that you are much stronger. With your death, I will prove without a doubt that I exist!"

Naruto frowned before saying "That's not proving your existence Gaara. That's just being a monster. If you want to prove your existence, than try making a few friends or two. After all, how can you prove your existence when no one is around to say you were here in the first place?"

Gaara got a confused look before he once again clutched his head in pain. Then he snarled before he launched himself at Naruto.

Naruto sighed before saying "Idiot." As soon as Gaara was in range, he rise kicked Gaara in his chin launching the Sand jinchuriki into the air. Jumping after him, Naruto appeared over Gaara. Spinning to add momentum, he slammed his foot into Gaara's stomach shooting him into the forest floor. The ground and trees shuddered form the impact causing the birds there to take off.

Naruto allowed his momentum of his jump to take him to one of the higher branches on the tree that Gaara had been standing on. Looking down, he shook his head and said "I warned him."

He heard his father snort before he said **"That's Shukkaku for you. That raccoon never did have much common sense. Don't get cocky though. He controls sand and can get it from pretty much anywhere that has ground around. The only sure fire way to easily beat this guy would be if you were over the ocean. Although considering what's happened so far, you shouldn't have too much trouble with him."**

Naruto nodded and kept looking down at where Gaara had landed. Sand had softened the impact but there was still an impressive crater down there. He decided not to take any chances and disengaged his weights as he waited.

A large distance away, the sand team was looking in shock at what happened. They started wondering again just who the hell this blond was.

Back with the two jinchuriki, Gaara slowly rose to his feet before looking at Naruto who was just looking down at him. Growling at Naruto who he though was mocking him, Gaara had more sand cover his body forming a tail.

Naruto raised an eyebrow at this but didn't react in any way.

Gaara roared before launching himself at Naruto even faster than before.

Naruto waited until Gaara was right on top of him before he pivoted on his left heel and spin kicked Gaara in the head. Gaara shot off to the left of Naruto and slammed into a tree. There was a loud cracking sound as the tree cracked from the impact. The tree then groaned as its top began leaning away from the two before falling. A resounding crash was heard when it hit the ground.

"**He Shoots, He Scores!"**

Naruto grinned at his father's statement as he watched Gaara shakily stand up clutching his head.

Gaara got a mad look in his eye when he saw Naruto grinning and said "I've never felt so alive! For you to push me this far, just shows how much you will prove my existence when I kill you! More! More!"

As he said this, Sand completely covered his body turning him into a miniature version of the one-tailed beast.

Naruto shook his head at this and got ready for the next round.

All of a sudden though, holes began appearing all over the body. Wind began being sucked in before Gaara shouted out "Your finished! Wind Style: Hurricane Force Justu!" Immediately after, Category 2 hurricane winds launched themselves out of the holes towards Naruto.

Naruto's hands instantly blurred as he heard his father yelling **"Oh no, you did NOT just launch a wind attack against the Demon Lord of Wind and Fire's host!" **Right after the Kyubi's shout, Naruto finished forming his justu and shot his arms in front of him with a cry of "Wind Style: Hurricane Blast Justu!"

Category 5 hurricane winds shot out of his palms and slammed into Gaara's attack before turning THAT attack against him as well and slamming Gaara with the combined winds.

Gaara screamed as the wind hit him and blew him over five miles away. Naruto stood there for a few moments panting before he took off at high speed after him.

Back with the sand team, they all were shocked at the turn of events before they also rushed to where Gaara had flown off as well.

Naruto reached Gaara's landing site in under a minute and looked around. It wasn't all that hard to find. Naruto's attack had left a trail three times bigger than Orochimaru's. Gaara was in a crater and barely conscious as Naruto came closer.

Seeing this, Gaara said with fear in his voice "Don't come any closer! I will not cease to exist!"

Naruto shook his head and said "Gaara if I was going to kill you then I would have done so already. I don't want to kill you, I want to help you. We're practically brothers after all"

Gaara grew a confused look and said "What do you mean?"

Naruto simply lifted up his shirt and channeled his chakra as a way of answering.

Gaara's eyes widened and he said "Your just like me. But how? How did you not end up like me? How are you so strong?"

The sand team had by this time reached the clearing and had been shocked when they heard Gaara speak.

Naruto just smiled as he let his shirt fell and said "Because I had those who believed in me. They were able to save me from the darkness. It is my determination to protect those people that gave me my strength. One of my friends once told me a very wise thing. Only my defending those precious to you do you become truly strong."

Gaara considered his words and said "The strength to protect those you care about, it comes from love. But I don't have anyone like that."

Naruto just shook his head and walked towards Gaara. Crouching down he said "You would be surprised Gaara. You already have two in the form of your brother and sister. And if you'd like, me as well."

Gaara looked stunned as Naruto offered a hand. Gaara blinked before accepting it and Naruto lifted him onto his feet. Turning around, he helped Gaara over to his team.

Once there, he called out "Hey Mizuki-sensei, you just going to stand there or are you coming down?"

The sand team jumped as Mizuki landed beside Naruto with a group of Anbu around him.

Looking around with raised eyebrow and a grin he said "Dang Naruto, what the hell were you doing out here?"

Naruto just chuckled with his own grin before saying "Just a friendly spar between two brothers."

The Anbu looked around and sweat dropped at the amount of damage that one justu of his caused and wondered what a full out battle would look like.

Gaara's eyes widened as a true smile touched his lips after a very long time.

The rest of the sand team's eyes also widened before they smiled as well.

Mizuki's grin turned into a warm smile as he said "Figures."

Naruto chuckled again before turning to Gaara and said "You know Gaara, I could take a look at your seal and reinforce it if you want. Might help with your problem."

The Sand team's eyes got even wider to the point that it looked like they would roll out of their heads.

Gaara smiled again before saying "I would like that."

Naruto nodded before Mizuki said "Come on guys, the Hokage wants to talk to all of you."

Naruto nodded to Mizuki as each of the Anbu put a hand on the Sand team with Naruto putting his hand on Gaara's shoulder before the group shushined to the Hokage Tower.


	25. Chunnin Exams: Calm Before The Storm:1

Chunnin Exams: Calm before the Storm

The group appeared in the Hokage's office with a series of poofs of smoke. The old man looked up from his desk where he had been working on paper work. Naruto spotted the crystal ball that the old man used sometimes and cocked an eyebrow. He knew that they had had an audience for some of the fight when the Anbu showed up. The question was when Sarutobi started watching and why he had even wanted to observe him in the first place.

The hokage decided to get down to business and said "Naruto do you mind telling me why you decided to pick a fight with a fellow contestant of the final exam a whole month early?"

Naruto shrugged and said "First of all old man, I didn't pick that fight. I just wanted to talk to my fellow jinchuriki. (At this Sarutobi's eyes drifted to Gaara before he frowned.) Gaara's 'tenant' didn't like the fact that one of his old drinking buddies was nearby and 'persuaded' Gaara to start a fight."

Everyone rose an eyebrow at the drinking buddy bit while Kyubi just snorted and said **"Oh please. Shukaku and I weren't drinking buddies. He was too much of a lightweight."**

Naruto rose an eyebrow at his father's comment but didn't say anything. Sarutobi noticed but didn't ask Naruto what he was thinking since he knew he would tell about it if it was important.

Turning to Gaara he asked "Is what Naruto says true?"

Seeing Gaara nod, he turned back to Naruto and said "So your telling me that you did not intentionally engage Gaara in combat?"

Naruto nodded and said "That's right. I just wanted to talk to him but Shukaku decided to try and get my blood."

Sarutobi sighed and said "I see. Well, since no one was hurt too badly I guess we can let the matter drop. However, if another fight between you and another contestant happens before the finals, you will be disqualified. Am I clear?"

Naruto nodded and Sarutobi sighed again before saying "Very well, you all may leave."

Naruto and the sand team nodded before leaving the office. Sarutobi dismissed the Anbu group who took off leaving only Mizuki and Sarutobi.

When they were gone, Mizuki shook his head and with a rueful grin said "I swear, that kid is a magnet for confrontation."

Sarutobi chuckled and said "How true. But I would say that he handled himself rather well. You did good when you trained him Mizuki. But onto more important matters. What did your shadow clone find out?"

Mizuki instantly got serious and said "Naruto was right. That Kabuto guy is not what he seems. My clone actually saw him talking to Orochimaru. It couldn't get too close obviously, but Kabuto was definitely comfortable around him."

Sarutobi once again sighed as he frowned. Looking up, he said "Very well, I want you and Hayate to keep an eye on him."

Mizuki nodded and the hokage dismissed him. When he was once again alone in his office, Sarutobi leaned back in his chair and thought about everything that happened.

Outside, Naruto turned to the sand team and said "Gaara, do you want me to go ahead and look at the seal now or would you rather wait till a later date."

Gaara said "I would appreciate it if we could look at it as soon as possible."

Naruto nodded and led the team to his apartment where he could work in peace.

At his apartment, he had Gaara sit on his table and take his shirt off before channeling chakra to his seal.

When the seal appeared, Naruto's eyes widened and he said "No wonder you've been having trouble with Shukaku. This seal is for an inanimate object, It's not designed to work on something living, never mind a tailed beast. I wouldn't be surprised if he broke out in a year or two. Who ever put this seal on was an idiot."

Kankuro and Temari's eyes widened at Naruto's words while Baki looked concerned.

Gaara however remained calm and said "Can you fix it?"

Naruto sighed before saying "Gaara you don't understand, this seal has no right being anywhere near you. But yeah I can fix it. I'm actually going to put a new one over it. It's going to be a pain in the butt though. Let me get my supplies."

Five hours later, Naruto was finally finished as he gave the seal he had made one last look over.

Sighing from all the mental work that came with turning Gaara's seal from a storage seal that had no right holding anything larger than a ton of bricks to one that would actually do it's job in keeping Gaara's residential demon in line, Naruto placed all of his materials away and said "That should do it."

It hadn't been easy by any means, but with his father's help, it hadn't been too hard to figure out what to do. No, the hard part had actually been the integration of the new seal over Gaara's old one.

Gaara sat up and said "Thank you Naruto."

Naruto nodded and said "Your welcome. The seal is based off of my own, so you shouldn't have any more problems. You can still draw on Shukaku's chakra but it can no longer take over every time you close your eyes."

Temari's eyes widened and she said "Does that mean he can actually sleep now?"

Naruto turned to her and nodded before he said "If he wanted to. He's been going without it for so long his body has become used to drawing on Shukaku's energy to sustain himself. He could switch between sleeping and drawing the demon's energy depending on what the situation calls for."

Before their conversation could continue, there was a knocking at the apartment's door.

Naruto cocked his head before he called over his shoulder "Be there in a minute."

Turning to the sand team he said "Five bucks says that's a summon from the council demanding that seal I gave Hinata."

Walking over to the door he opened it and found a chunnin outside.

"Yes?" he asked as politely as he could considering what he thought the man was here for.

The chunnin cleared his throat before he said "Uzumaki, you are to report to the council immediately."

Naruto frowned and said "Thought so, give me a minute."

Turning to the sand team again he said "You guys might want to head back to your hotel. Knowing the council, this is going to take forever to solve."

The sand team left while saying thanks to Naruto once again for fixing Gaara's seal. After they were gone, Naruto and the chunnin headed over to the Hokage Tower where the council chamber was.

When Naruto and the chunnin got to the door of the council chamber, the guards opened the door and the two went in.

From what Naruto could hear through the walls before he went in, there was quite a discussion going on. As soon as he stepped in though, all talk ceased as everyone looked at him. Naruto sighed and said "All right, what do you want now?"

One civilian council member sneered and said "I see that you still don't show your superiors proper respect boy."

Naruto cocked his eyebrow and said "I don't show respect just because of a title. You want my respect, you have to earn it." He turned to the shinobi side before continuing "Now I'll ask again, what is this all about?"

The civilians began stewing but the shinobi side just calmly looked on with only a few frowns before Hiashi decided to get things started.

"It has come to our attention that you gave my clan's heir a seal that she used in her preliminary match today. Is this true?"

Naruto sighed and said "Figures. Yes I did give her that seal, and no, I'm not giving it to anyone else."

The council chambers erupted as the council members began shouting that he had no choice in the matter and that they ordered him to give them the seal.

This went on for about fifteen seconds before Naruto looked at his leader and silently asked permission. The hokage nodded and Naruto turned back around to the council members who were still shouting at him.

That all stopped when they suddenly felt a crippling amount of not only KI, but that sense of power Naruto was famous for giving off.

Even though it was only for two seconds at most, all of the civilians automatically started sweating while some actually had trouble breathing. Some of the shinobi also started sweating before getting control of themselves.

Looking around the entire room making sure that he had their attention he said "Now then, before any of you get any more ideas that you can order me to give up what's mine, let me explain. First of all, that seal isn't something you can just take into battle and expect victory from it. I designed it for Hinata to be only used as a last resort in the field only. The only reason she could safely use it without the full risk that comes from its use is the fact that there were medic ninja at the prelims. Also, I am not about to just hand over some of my best work just to satisfy your greed. I worked hard to get where I could make that seal and I am not about to let someone else take my work that I worked so hard to do and then just spit in my face with it. The Hokage and I have talked about the seal and both agree it should only been given out when certain circumstances require it. And don't even think about copying that seal because it isn't something that you can just slap on everyone and hope for the best. There are many variables that are different for everyone and if you do try to copy it on someone else your just as likely to kill that person on the first day as anything else."

The civilians started steaming and were about to erupt again when Sarutobi said "Enough! Naruto is right. That seal is his property and so none of you have the right to order him to give it away. And as for him putting the seal on any more members of the Hyuga clan, like he also said, it is not just some kind of battery you can use anytime you want. Therefore I will not order him to place it on anyone unless the circumstances that warrant the seal are present."

The council mumbled but no one dared speak up until Hiashi once again spoke up. "Uzumaki, will you please explain to us what makes this seal so dangerous? From what I heard, it simply acts as a battery doesn't it?"

Naruto sighed and said "Typical. No it is not a battery, it's a combination of jump cable and drainer. The seal takes a certain percentage of a person's over all chakra reserves each day and places it in a reserve that's located in the seal. I can change the percentage if I want to but it would be a pain in the ass readjusting the seal because of all the variables. Any way, when the user runs low on chakra he or she would activate the seal and the chakra would run over that person's chakra network before transferring the chakra. You have to be careful though since if you refill the chakra reserves too fast the coils could explode from the strain of refilling so fast. Also, since, the seal is constantly refilling the reserves non stop, you have to make it where the coils and chakra points won't bust from the constant influx of chakra. The seal turns the fire hose from the first five seconds down to a small garden hose until more chakra is used in say a justu where it will once again turn up the amount before dropping back down. You could quickly run out of the chakra in the seal's reserve if you were in a Ninjustu fight since justus take a lot of chakra most of the time to use. And that's not counting the tree and water walking that you may be doing at the same time as your fighting. Also, the rapid expanding and contracting of the coils could seriously harm someone if they tried to use the seal for too long. Also, once the seal is withdrawn, it automatically takes that day's percentage to refill the reserve. And if you had used all the reserve and were low on chakra after the fight, then you could end up killing yourself from chakra exhaustion. The only way that the seal won't automatically take that percentage is if there is a chakra transfusion going on before or immediately after it withdraws. It's a failsafe for when a medic needs to transfer chakra or heal the person with the seal. Truth be told, you would be better to just use a soldier pill. The only reason why I even considered giving Hinata the seal was the fact that her fighting style depends on chakra almost completely. If you are in a gentle fist user and you run out of chakra in battle, your opponent has an advantage."

The council had been silent as they listened to Naruto's explanation. Shikaku then spoke up "So the seal is really a double edged sword. No wonder you have her only use it as a last resort."

Naruto nodded and said "Exactly. And that is mostly why I am not willing to just give it out, even to other Hyugas. Any shinobi or kunoichi with that seal would probably wind up relying on that seal when they were in a fight when it would have been smarter to retreat. It should really only be used for if you can't get away on your own."

Some of the shinobi nodded while agreeing to his logic while others and most of the civilians frowned when they realized that they would not be getting a new potential tool to further themselves.

Hiashi was one of the ones frowning, but for different reasons. Speaking up again he asked "Is there anyway to modify the seal to make it safer?"

Naruto turned to him before nodding and said "Theoretically every seal can be adjusted if you know what your doing. However, it could take me years for me to get it safe enough for mass usage. But by the time I'm done, the seal would most likely not work as effectively or it would just simply be a one time use. It was hard enough getting it to the point I felt it was safe for Hinata, and that was just for one person. Like I said, the variables are different for everyone. Sure I could make a chakra battery seal, but the instant you activated it, it would cause your chakra coils to explode since it would send all the chakra out at once."

More murmuring was heard at this statement. Then one of the elders spoke up.

"You said that the coils would explode before several times now. Does that mean that there is the possibility of an actual explosion occurring?"

Naruto turned to face the bandaged man and said "There is a very good chance if enough chakra is used. It would basically be the same as using an exploding shadow clone. Only difference is that it is the original who exploded and not the clone. Not something I think you would want to do unless you wanted to take someone with you. But yeah, if you had a battery seal you could essentially become a living bomb."

He then cocked his head as he thought of something before saying "Although, if you had enough chakra to make a shadow clone or maybe another type of clone that is solid like a mud clone you could probably do the same using those. Though if you're going to do that, you might as well stick a bunch of exploding tags on it and then sending it on its way. Much simpler that way. Actually, paper bombs are really chakra batteries as well, so it's doesn't make a difference."

The shinobi nodded at this and Naruto asked "Any more questions or can I get going? I need to get ready for the finals."

One of the civilians stood up and asked "What about the Uchiha? He is going to need help for his fight against Gaara of the desert."

Naruto faced the council member and said "I don't think you will have to worry about that. Kakashi-sensei was going to find teachers for us to help train us this month for the finals. I'm pretty sure though that he plans on training Sasuke himself since Sasuke has nearly finished fire elemental training. Since both of them have Lighting nature chakra as well, Kakashi-sensei would most likely want to get that down as well to give him an edge in case his fire style justus don't work out."

The council member nodded before sitting down and another civilian stood up as well while asking "Is there anyway you could make a seal that would make it easier for him to learn to do this manipulation thing?"

Naruto nodded before saying "There are a few seals that could possibly help, but I don't think he'll need them. He and Sakura showed amazing progress when they worked on their primary elements. But I don't plan on giving him any regardless. They would only make him rely on them. No, it would be better if he learns lightning manipulation without them. That is if Kakashi-sensei is going to teach him that, if he is teaching him at all. Though like I said, it's a pretty sure bet that he will."

This member also nodded before sitting back down. Seeing that no one else seemed to have any questions, Sarutobi said "Seeing as how there are no more questions, this session is dismissed."

The members stood up as they filed out of the room. However, the elder that had spoken earlier stayed behind. Sarutobi gave him a look but Naruto simply turned and asked "Can I help you with anything Danzo?"

Danzo studied Naruto and decided to get straight to the point. "Uzumaki, you are the closest thing the Leaf village has to a seal master while Jiraiya is away. I was wondering if you could design a few seals for me."

Naruto cocked his eyebrow and said "Depends on the seals."

Danzo nodded and said "Mostly security seals for the most part. But I was wondering if it was possible to put a limit on those chakra batteries we talked about so that they gave out chakra in increments."

Naruto cocked his head to the side and thought. Nodding, he said "It's possible. It would have to be predetermined how much percentage of chakra was released though. And you wouldn't be able to change that percentage without taking a set amount of time to set it to that new percentage by properly changing part of the seal. But one of the main problems would be actually getting it to go where it was needed. Most of the time spent working on Hinata's seal was figuring out a way to get it to go straight to the coils instead of just shooting it into the body. And believe me, you can't just place a seal line over the chakra line and hope for the best. Unless the chakra goes exactly where it is needed, it could really mess up with the body's insides. That's why I had said a soldier pill would be better since it goes exactly where it needs to."

Danzo nodded after Naruto's explanation and said "Thank you Uzumaki. I will contact you again if I further require your assistance."

Seeing Naruto's nod, the old man walked out of the council chamber. Sarutobi frowned before Naruto said "Relax old man. Chakra battery seals aren't all that uncommon in the shinobi world. Like I said earlier, a good example are paper bombs. And as for those security seals, I doubt he will have me do anything real serious. More likely than not, he just wants some perimeter seals for his house or something."

The hokage sighed before nodding. He left after a quick good bye good luck before heading back to his office.

"**That went better than we thought."**

Naruto nodded before sensing his father yawn and started taking a nap.

The next morning, Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke met up at Training Ground 7 at eight and sat down in front of the three posts.

Five minutes later, Kakashi showed up with another Jounin matching his pace.

When Naruto saw who it was, he groaned before pointing at the man and said "What's he doing here?"

The man adjusted his sunglasses but before he could say anything, Kakashi said "Now Naruto, I know you had a bad run in with Ebisu before but the truth is he is one of the best tutors out there."

Naruto frowned but didn't say anything else.

Sakura and Sasuke looked confused before Kakashi spoke up again. "Now then, we have a month to get you three ready for your matches. Sasuke, you will be training with me. Sakura, Ebisu here will be working with you."

Turning to Naruto he said "Naruto, your godfather is in town and has agreed to train you for the month. You know where to find him."

Naruto raised an eyebrow and said with a small smile "So the pervert's here eh? This should be interesting."

Sakura and Sasuke got confused and Sasuke asked "who's your godfather?"

Naruto just waved one of his hands and said "A shinobi of the leaf that does a lot of traveling outside of the village for the hokage. He mainly gathers information that would concern the village."

Sakura and Sasuke got an "ah" look on their faces while Ebisu frowned a little trying to figure out who this person could be.

Naruto turned to Ebisu and said in a serious voice. "You better do a good job teaching Sakura. Because if you don't, (He got an evil grin making Ebisu gulp.) I'll prank you for a whole year at least once every day that I'm not on a mission out of the village."

Ebisu started sweating since he knew Naruto's reputation and said "Now, now, no need for that. I promise I will do my absolute best to prepare your teammate for her upcoming matches."

Naruto maintained eye contact for a few more seconds before nodding and said "Good, do that, and you have nothing to worry about."

Turning to his teacher he said "Kakashi-sensei, if there's nothing else, I'm going to go find him."

Kakashi shook his head and said "There's nothing else Naruto. Good luck with your training."

Naruto nodded and took off.

(Before we get to the next part, allow me to explain how Jiraiya and Naruto know each other in this fic. Just before his last year in the academy started, Jiraiya had come to the village to give a report to Sarutobi. The hokage then had him introduce himself to Naruto and explain who he was. Needless to say, Naruto was a bit pissed about his godfather not being there for him the first few years, but the two soon worked that out and Jiraiya would usually teach him a thing or two whenever he was in the village again.)

Naruto headed quickly to the hot springs where he knew his godfather would most likely be. He wasn't disappointed as he saw a hunched over form looking through a peep hole.

Shaking his head, he thought 'Some things never change.'

Naruto then got a grin as he used the advanced hedge he had made originally as a means to pull off pranks to physically change his shape to that of a blond girl his age. Walking into the ladies' side, he took a quick glance around to see if any kunoichi were in there. He got an evil grin as he spotted Anko in the water. Naruto walked over to Anko and tapped her shoulder causing her to look at hm.

She frowned when she saw that it was Naruto but before she could say anything, Naruto told her using battle sign language that there was someone on the other side of the fence spying. He kept his hand out of view of the fence so that Jiraiya didn't get an advanced warning. Anko frowned before she got an evil grin and gave Naruto the thumb's up. Naruto nodded and then left. On the other side of the fence, Jiraiya frowned since the blond had seemed familiar and had just looked at Anko before leaving.

Naruto walked out of the entrance just in time to see a pair of snakes shoot up and over the fence before they wrapped around the pervert. Jiraiya screamed as he was brought over the fence and into the pool with a splash. Screaming was heard right after followed by the sound of a thorough beating.

Naruto disengaged his advanced henge as he headed towards where he and his godfather would usually train when he visited. Jiraiya would know to go there after he got his punishment.

Naruto came to a clearing where a river ran past and ended in a large waterfall over a nearby cliff. He started doing warm ups before he took out his fox sword and started doing katas with it while adding different elements to it as well.

Jiraiya came into the clearing with bruises to this scene. He watched as Naruto focused water natured chakra to his sword and used it like a water whip. Naruto then switched to lightning and when Naruto next swung, the blade shot a bolt of lightning at a nearby tree causing one of the branches to fall off.

Jiraiya came forward and said "You've gotten better with that thing. I remember when you could only use wind and to an extent fire properly."

Naruto turned around held the sword loosely in his right hand with it pointing to the ground. Nodding he said "Yeah, it helps when you can have shadow clones trying different methods at the same time as each other."

Jiraiya nodded and said "Yeah they do help a lot. Now then, before we can start, I've got an offer for you. How would you like to sign the toad contract? After all, your father was able to summon them as well as me so it's kind of like your heritage to sign it if you want to."

Naruto's eyes widened before he frowned and said "I thought you could only have one summoning contract?"

Jiraiya nodded and said "True, but it's not an actual rule. It's just that not all summons work well with each other. However, I have talked to Gamabunta, and he has no problem with you signing if Tsumiaya agrees." (Another made up name made on the fly.)

Naruto nodded before he sealed his sword to free both hands. He then bit his thumb and made the necessary hand signs.

Naruto shot up as a large cloud of smoke appeared. When it cleared, he was standing on a giant fox's head. The fox looked around before she looked up at Naruto and said **"Naruto, why have you summoned me? I see no fight."**

Naruto jumped off of Tsumiaya's head and once on the ground turned and gave a short bow to her before saying. "Sorry to bother you like this Tsumiaya, but Jiraiya has offered to allow me to sign the toad contract. He said that Gamabunta agrees if you do."

Tsumiaya cocked her head in thought before nodding and said **"Very well. But I wish to speak to Gamabunta once you sign."**

Naruto nodded while Jiraiya took the large scroll off of his back and unrolled it in front of his godson.

Naruto bit his thumb again and signed his name in the first clear panel in blood before he pressed his fingers against his thumb before putting all five fingers on the panel under his name.

Jiraiya rolled up the contract and put it back on his back as Naruto walked a short distance to stand behind him. Turning around, Naruto flashed through the hand signs again.

There was another poof of smoke as a giant toad appeared.

The toad looked up and said **"Well, if it isn't little Naruto. Last time I saw you, you were wrapped in a blanket. I take it that Tsumiaya agreed then?"**

Tsumiaya spoke up drawing Gamabunta's attention. **"I did. However, I want you to promise me that you and the rest of the toads will do your best to help him and keep him safe when he calls on you."**

Gamabunta nodded and said **"Of course. You have my word."**

Tsumiaya nodded as well and said **"Very well." **Looking towards Naruto, she dipped her head before saying **"Till next time Naruto."** With that, she headed back to her summoning realm with a poof of smoke and popping sound.

Naruto hopped back down to the ground and turned around smiling before saying "Thanks."

Gamabunta nodded but before he could say anything, Jiraiya spoke up.

"Bunta, I was wondering if we could go to Mt. Myobuki for about a month for some training. Naruto is going to be in the final part of the Chunnin Exams next month and I would like to get him as up to spec with fighting with toads as possible in that time."

Gamabunta nodded again and said **"I have no problems with that. I believe he actually did the same with the foxes before so it should be no problem. Get whatever gear you will need and summon me tomorrow. I will take you there then."**

Both Naruto and Jiraiya nodded and Gamabunta left the same way as Tsumiaya.

Jiraiya turned to Naruto and said "Pack for a month long trip. We'll meet here at noon tomorrow. Oh and by the way, I'd pack some food while you're at it. Toads have a very different idea about what food is than we do."

Naruto nodded and the two separated to deal with their own businesses.

Entering the village, Naruto created a shadow clone which took off to his apartment to pack up his supplies he would need. He made another one and sent it to get any groceries that would be practical when he left the village. Ramen in a cup was good and all, but even he knew you couldn't have it all the time.

He then took off to find Hinata. He tried her team's training ground first but when she wasn't there, headed to the Hyuga estate.

Reaching the gate, he asked if Hinata was inside and one of the guards went to go check. Five minutes later, the guard came back out followed by Hinata.

Hinata smiled when she saw him and said "Hey Naruto. The guard said you were looking for me?"

Naruto nodded and said "Yeah. I came to tell you that I'll be gone for a little while. My godfather's in town and wants to take me for a training trip during the month before the exams."

Hinata nodded. She didn't bother asking who his godfather was since she had run into a training session between the two a couple of times. Needless to say that she was shocked when she discovered that Jiraiya of the Sannin was Naruto's godfather.

Hinata got a smile on her face as she said "I understand Naruto. It's going to be even more quite with you gone though. Once you get back, you really need to start working on those pranks of yours."

Both guards shivered slightly when they heard this causing the heiress and blond to chuckle before Naruto leaned in and gave her a quick kiss before saying bye and running off.

Hinata blushed but got it under control as she smiled and went back into the compound. The guards smiled and the one on the left turned to his partner and said "Lady Hinata certainly caught herself a good one."

The other guard nodded and said "True, but I hate to think about what he will do after the exams. He hasn't done a prank in months. I'm sure the first few are going to be big to make up for that."

Both guards shuddered again before agreeing that they really did not want to think about what he would do.

Naruto then went to the academy and told Mizuki and Iruka about how Jiraiya had let him sign the toad summoning contract and how they were going to Mt. Myobuki to train for a month. Both wished him good luck before the three went to Ichiraku's for a quick lunch together. He spent the rest of the day with Konohamaru and his friends. The three kids were disappointed that they wouldn't see him for a month but were excited when he thought they were ready for the next chakra exercise and showed them how to water walk. He spent most of the time sitting on the water and giving them advice where they needed it.

The next morning, Naruto woke up and went to find his former teammates to tell them about his training trip. He looked all over but finally found the two sitting together in the shinobi library reading. Matto had a book on seals while Heza was looking through one on Genjustu.

Naruto greeted his two friends before he cocked his eyebrow when he saw the title on Heza's book and said "Didn't know you were interested in Genjustu Heza."

Heza glanced up with a shrug and said "I'm not really, but it would be a good idea to try and have a general knowledge and ability of the skills out there. I would also like to be able to do more than just the basic henge if I have to fool someone."

Naruto nodded and looked over at Matto reading the title on his book.

His eyebrow shot right back up and he said "Dang Matto, are you really on the 5th level for intermediates already?"

Matto smiled and said "Yup."

Naruto just shook his head and said "Sheesh, keep that up and you and I will be having a seal war in no time."

The three chuckled and Naruto decided that now was as good a time as any.

"Anyway, the reason why I came to find you guys was to tell you that I'll be going on a little training trip with my godfather to get ready for the final exam."

Matto and Heza's eyebrows shot up and Heza said "Well then I guess we better come to the finals then. Knowing you, it will be one heck of a show."

Matto nodded before saying "Just don't completely demolish the building ok? I don't think the village would appreciate having to build a new stadium."

"Party pooper."

The three shared another laugh before Naruto said good bye and left to make sure he had everything he needed.

After he was gone, Matto turned to Heza and said "Don't you think we should have told him?"

Heza smiled as she turned the page in her book before saying "Nah, he'll find out eventually."

Matto just shrugged before going back to his own book.

Time Skip: Noon

Naruto was sitting cross legged in the small clearing meditating as Jiraiya walked up to him.

"You ready for this Naruto?" He asked with a smile.

Naruto opened his eyes and got a fox grin before saying "Oh yeah, I'm ready all right. If this is going to be anything like training with the foxes then this is going to be real fun."

Jiraiya laughed and said "We'll see. Though I got to warn you kid, those toads can be brutal in their training."

Naruto's grin got bigger and he said "So? I like challenges, remember?"

Jiraiya laughed again and said "So you do. Come on lets get this show on the road."

With that, Jiraiya summoned Gamabunta who took them to the toad summoning realm.


	26. Chunnin Exams: Calm Before The Storm 2

Chunnin Exams: Calm Before the Storm 2

Naruto and Jiraiya appeared in poofs of smoke with Gamabunta behind them in a small clearing on top of a mountain. Naruto looked around and whistled softly as he took in the enormous plant life. He also spotted a bunch of toads lounging about. He jumped slightly when he heard a voice below him.

"Ah, Jiraiya-boy, it's good to see you again. And I assume that this must be your new student Naruto."

Naruto looked down at the obviously old toad and then cocked an eyebrow at his godfather. "Jiraiya-boy?

Jiraiya rubbed the back of his head and said with an embarrassed chuckle "Heh, heh, well you see, I first came here when I was just a little bit younger than you."

Naruto got an "ah" look on his face before the toad continued "That, and next to my age, he is nothing more than a tadpole."

Naruto's lips twitched before he looked down again and said "So what does that make me?"

The toad chuckled and said "Very young. Now then, Jiraiya-boy, Gamabunta told me you wish to have Naruto-boy here train with some of the toads for a short while. We can begin that tomorrow, but for now, lets get you two settled and then show Naruto-boy around."

The two humans followed the older toad as he hopped away while Gamabunta went off on his own.

Naruto frowned a little before saying "By the way, I never got your name."

The old toad chuckled and said "Fukasako, but you can just call me Pa." (Note: sticking with Pa for the rest, same with his wife, Shima.)

Naruto nodded and the three kept walking. The three soon reached a hut and went in.

When Pa entered he called out "Hey Ma, Jiraiya-boy's here and he brought his new student as well."

A toad looking just as old as Pa only female hopped in and said "Well now, isn't this a nice surprise."

Pa frowned and said "It's not a surprise Ma, Gamabunta told us they were coming yesterday remember?"

Ma frowned as well before smacking her husband with her purse and said "I know that Pa! I was just being polite!"

Naruto cocked his eyebrow before thinking to himself 'Now I know where the saying 'fighting like an old couple' comes from.' He heard his father mentally snort before going back to his nap.

Ma turned to Naruto and said "Anyway, you had good timing, lunch will be ready in a couple of minutes."

Jiraiya visibly paled but before he could say anything, Naruto said "Thanks, but I've already eaten. Figured it would be a good idea to eat before we came in case we decided to start training right off the bat."

Jiraiya sighed in relief while thinking 'good save kid.' Pa just chuckled.

Ma frowned slightly before shrugging and said "Well if you're sure."

Pa just shook his head and said "well, why don't I get you two a tour guide while I wait for lunch? No sense in you two waiting for me."

The two humans nodded and Pa led them back outside to where a toad was resting in one of the giant plant leaves. The toad readily agreed to showing them around and they started their tour.

The next day found Naruto up early in one of the training fields close to his and Jiraiya's camp. He had did his warm ups and was currently having a sparring match with one of his clones. Both had their swords out and seemed to be doing their best to take the other's head off. Although anyone watching would be confused at the identical grins both the original and the clone had the whole time. The two had been at it for a good half hour already and still were going strong.

Jiraiya was sitting in a nearby tree watching the whole thing with a small smile of pride on his face as he watched his godson.

This was the scene that Pa and small group of toads, came upon. Some of the toads who had swords strapped to their backs were murmuring to themselves about how good Naruto seemed to be with a sword.

All of a sudden both blondes nodded to each other before they took their match up a notch. The two coated their swords in wind chakra before jumping back and swinging their blades through the air. Blades of wind shot off from the swords and collided in mid air.

Lighting came next and clashed much the same way before water whips formed on their blades and the two started having a whip fight. This lasted for about a minute before the two poured earth nature into their blades causing them to gain an outer layer made of what looked like diamond. The two blades clashed again as the diamond blades did their best to break each other before the two jumped back and switched to fire before going back at it.

This kept up for another ten minutes as the blondes started mixing things up by countering one element with another or using the same element in different ways. For instance, when one would launch blades of wind from the sword, another would either coat their own blade with wind and cut through them or coat their blade in a greater amount of lightning chakra before launching it to neutralize the wind.

This all ended though when the clone shot a fire attack at the original and the other did something completely unexpected. Getting a fox grin, the original coated his blade in wind chakra causing most to wonder what he was thinking. But just as the fire hit the wind chakra, it started spinning around the blade gaining power before Naruto spun around swinging. As soon as Naruto had done a full 360 spin, the fire shot out at the clone and hit him square in the chest. The fire exploded into a fire ball and a popping sound was heard as it died down.

The original wiped some sweat from his brow before sealing his sword. Immediately after, clapping was heard from the toads. Naruto turned around and rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment as the toads came closer now that the fight was over.

One of the bigger toads with two swords on his back came up to Naruto an put a hand on Naruto's shoulder while saying "I must say Naruto, that was an impressive display of swordsmanship. You obviously know what you were doing. Especially with that elemental blade of yours. You should have no problem training with me and the others. We might even give you another blade to work with if you're good enough."

Naruto nodded and said with a smile "Looking forward to it. Any training you guys can give me is appreciated."

The toad grinned and said "Oh you'll get trained all right. But I have to warn you, this won't be no walk in the park for ya."

Naruto met him grin for grin and said "Bring it on. I like challenges anyway. The bigger the challenge, the better."

All of the toads grinned as the toad talking to Naruto's grin took a slightly evil tint to it.

"Oh really? Then I guess we better get started. We got just under a month to get you into shape, and I plan on using every minute of that time that I have."

Up in the tree, Jiraiya smirked as he thought 'You are about to get worked to death kid. But something tells me you'll be just fine.'

Scene Change Two Weeks Later Hidden Leaf Village

There was a full moon out as Gaara stood on the roof of an abandoned house. He was leaning against a support as he looked at the moon thinking about everything that had happened so far. He had decided to inform the Leaf of the invasion plans since Naruto had helped him not only with his seal but also helped him see what he had been doing wrong for so long. His brother and sister had agreed with him and Baki had as well. None of them wanted to fight someone who had beat Gaara so easily without using any of his roommate's power.

Though that was only part of their reason. The other was Gaara himself. Already he had shown impressive improvement in how he lived. They all felt this was the best way to thank the blond. However, they hadn't made a move yet since they didn't want to tip their hand to early. Baki planned to hopefully change that tonight.

All these thoughts went through Gaara's head as he continued to look at the moon. He stayed there for another ten minutes before heading back inside.

A block away, Baki was meeting his contact with the sound village. One silver haired youth with glasses. Hiding a short ways away were Hayate and Mizuki, who had been tailing the traitor for a couple of weeks.

Kabuto had been watching Gaara for a while and shook his head before saying "Doesn't that boy ever go to sleep? Although he would make a good night guard I'll give you that."

Baki hmmed as he remembered the night after Naruto had fixed Gaara's seal. It had taken him hours to fall asleep, but when he did, he slept for a full twenty four hours before he woke up again. Afterwards, it had been decided to keep pretenses up and Gaara wouldn't sleep until after the exams and invasion were over.

Shaking his head again, Kabuto turned to Baki and held up an envelope before saying "These are the final plans for the invasion. Make sure your Kazekage gets them."

Baki nodded as he accepted the envelope and said "I'll make sure he gets them in time."

Hayate stiffened while Mizuki narrowed his eyes. Something felt off about Baki. It was almost like he was simply reading from a script.

Hayate was getting ready to bolt to the Hokage when the gravel underneath him crunched under his foot.

Both leaf nin winced as Mizuki cursed mentally as both listened.

Kabuto smirked and said "Oh, and don't worry about the mice, I'll handle them."

Baki shook his head and said "No, I'll do it. We're in an alliance after all. We should pull our weight. Besides, their just Leaf nin. No need for you to waste your time."

With that, Baki blurred away as Kabuto smirked.

Hayate and Mizuki ran for it but only got a few blocks away before Baki appeared in front of them. Hayate tensed as he pulled out his sword while Mizuki pulled out an odd looking kunai before Baki tossed the envelope to Mizuki whose eyes widened before he caught it.

Seeing the two leaf nin's looks of confusion Baki said "Consider this the payment of our debt for what your jinchurikki did for our own. We will also do our best on our end to talk the rest of the Sand out of fighting."

With that, Baki shushined out of the area leaving the two nins looking at each other.

Mizuki shook his head and said with a small smile "Leave it to Naruto to produce results like this."

Hayate smirked and the two headed to the Hokage tower to report what they learned.

Scene Change Four Days Later Mt. Myobuki (If you have the proper spelling, please send it to me and I will edit these.)

Naruto was currently fighting in the tenth shinobi war. The past few days have been nothing but all out warfare between him and the toads. The first week had really been brutal for Naruto, but he soaked it all up like a sponge. The next week had been even harder as he was given a new blade and taught how to use it properly. Finally, all of the toads that used swords and even Ninjustu users had come together to 'test' him.

Those tests quickly turned into battles which then turned into all out war as Naruto was pushed farther than he ever had been before. Only the last training trip with the foxes came anywhere near this level of training. Craters had actually started appearing around the mountain as the wars broke out to include a much larger range than just a simple training area.

He was currently in a battle royal against ten dual sword wielding toads. He was back to back with a shadow clone and doing his best to keep his head on his shoulders. Sweat was pouring off of him and his clone was no better. In fact, if Naruto hadn't put some of his father's chakra into the clone, it would have been dispelled a long time ago. Through out it all though, Naruto and the clone had huge fox grins as they fought off the toads who had identical grins as well.

About fifty feet away, more of Naruto's clones with Kyubi chakra in them were going all out in Ninjustu battles with more toads. A few of them were engaging other sword wielding toads in elemental manipulation battles as well. In short, it was complete chaos where they were.

All the while, Jiraiya, and the toad elders were in a tree watching it all. Gamabunta was there as well to the side with his two sons on top of his head watching in awe. Jiraiya had a small smirk on his face as his godson was holding his own as the toads did their best to run him and his clones into the ground.

All of a sudden, a small poof of smoke erupted next to Jiraiya, drawing his attention to a small monkey. Jiraiya raised an eyebrow as the monkey handed him a small scroll before disappearing in another poof of smoke. Jiraiya frowned as he read the scroll before handing it to Pa who frowned as well when he read it.

Clearing his throat, Pa shouted out "Time Out!"

Instantly, all of the combatants stopped what they were doing. Naruto swiped the sweat around his brow as he turned to where Jiraiya and the others were.

Seeing Jiraiya take the scroll back from Pa before hopping down and walk over to him, he said "What's up?"

Jiraiya kept a serious face as he said "The third sent a monkey messenger just now. We've been recalled."

He tossed the scroll to Naruto who opened it up and read what was inside. He frowned before looking back up and asked "When do we leave?"

Jiraiya considered and said "No later than tonight. I'll have a meeting with all of the battle toads and explain to them what's going on so far while your packing our gear. We should get back to the village as soon as possible."

Naruto nodded and dispelled his clones before he ran off to their campsite to get everything there packed.

Scene Change Jiraiya's Training Area

It was abut nine o'clock by the time Pa had reverse summoned the two leaf shinobi back to where they had left for the toad summoning realm. Looking around to orient themselves, the two then quickly took off to the Hokage Tower after saying a quick goodbye to the old toad.

The two turned into little more than blurs as they rushed over the rooftops on their way to talk to the old man. An Anbu squad met them halfway to the tower due to how fast the two were traveling. After explaining that the Hokage had wanted to talk to them, one of the Anbu was assigned to escort them.

Reaching the tower, the two were immediately brought to the door to the Hokage's office before the Anbu left to go back to her squad.

Once the Anbu was gone, Jiraiya knocked on the door and the two entered when the old man called them in.

Inside the office, the two found Shikaku and the Hokage going over a detailed map on the leader's desk and some papers that had battle formations on them.

The Hokage looked up as they came in while Shikaku turned around to study the two shinobi as well.

Seeing who it was, Sarutobi smiled and said "Thank you for coming back on such short notice Jiraiya. As I said in my message, we are facing the threat of an invasion. I believe we can make use of you and Naruto in turning the tide of this invasion. Especially with Naruto's unique abilities with his clones."

Both toad users nodded and Jiraiya said "Understood sensei. You should also know that the toads have agreed to lend whatever support needed. I recommend using them in squads with Naruto's clones in each squad acting as squad leaders and relays for information. With his training, they should be able to work well together."

Sarutobi nodded before Naruto spoke up. "We can also ask the foxes for help Old Man. I'm sure they wouldn't mind giving us a hand. Like the toads, most of them are pretty good when it comes to a fight. Especially the kind that we're most likely going to be in. Also, it turns out that the toads and foxes can work well together when they are both given the same task."

Sarutobi nodded again and said "Good to know. Now then, lets get you two up to speed. We'll come up with a proper plan of action after that."

The next day, Jiraiya and Naruto were back in their training area. This time though, both the hokage and Shikaku had joined them. With a a nod from their leader, both bit their thumbs simultaneously and ran through the familiar hand signs.

Two poofs of smoke later, Rigeoned and a messenger toad were standing in front of the two shinobi.

They looked around before Rigeoned said "What can I do for you Naruto?"

Naruto handed Rigeoned a scroll as Jiraiya gave one to the toad before saying "Please bring this to Tsumiaya and ask her to send a reply afterwards."

Rigeoned nodded before taking off back to the foxes' summoning realm with the toad quickly following suite to the toad realm.

Ten minutes later, Rigeoned and the toad were back with scrolls of their own. Naruto and Jiraiya read the scrolls before nodding. Rigeoned and the toad quickly got beside the two shinobi as they bit their thumbs again and poured a much larger amount of chakra into their next summoning justu.

The poofs of smoke were much larger as Tsumiaya and Gamabunta suddenly came into existence. The two bosses nodded to each other before Tsumiaya leaned in closer to where the shinobi were standing.

Looking down at the hokage and other two adults briefly, she then focused on Naruto and with a serious expression on her face said to the blond **"There is much that we need to talk about."**

Gamabunta nodded and said **"That we do."**

Sarutobi stepped up to stand beside Naruto and said "Agreed. And may I say before hand thank you for helping us."

Tsumiaya nodded before saying **"Your thanks are appreciated, but not necessary. It is not only our duty, but pleasure as well to help defend the kit's home in any way that is needed."**

Gamabunta nodded again before saying **"Same here. The toads are allies of the Hidden Leaf Village. We take care of our friends."**

Sarutobi smiled as he nodded and said "Well then, shall we get started?"

Both bosses nodded and the group began discussing what was to come in a few days' time.

Time Skip Three Days Later

Naruto woke up earlier than usual and as soon as he was showered and dressed head out of his apartment. He created a clone with a relatively large chunk of his father's chakra and sent it to the west before he took off to the east. The sun still had about an hour before thinking about rising as he rushed to the east village wall. Reaching the wall, he shot up it like a rocket scaring the crap out of the guardsmen there before he launched himself off the top into the surrounding forest. The guard mumbled to himself about crazy blondes and their pranks before settling back down.

In the forest, Naruto disengaged his weights and increased his speed. Two and a half minutes later, he reached a large clearing that was out of the path of the upcoming invasion.

Looking around and checking for chakra senses, Naruto nodded to himself when he sensed no one around in a two hundred foot range besides the usual forest animals. He flared his chakra before biting both of his thumbs and running through one handed hand signs. He then slammed both palms onto the ground at the same time and smiled as a large group of foxes and toads appeared.

The foxes and toads looked around as Naruto then crossed his fingers into his favorite hand sign. Two seconds later, the large group of foxes and toads were joined by a group of shadow clones about a third as large as the combined summons group. Each clone had a red ring in their eyes as they looked around before the original unsealed a large map and unrolled it in front of everyone.

Looking up from the map, the original said "All right, lets go over the plan one final time."

The group collectively nodded its head as everyone made sure they knew what their assignments were. On the other side of the village, a similar meeting was going on as well.

Once Naruto was done talking with the group, he took off back to the village at high speed before running back up the wall and shooting off towards the academy. The same guard just shook his head and went back to watching the forest.

Screeching to a halt at the academy entrance, Naruto quickly looked around and lightly pulsed his chakra to see if anyone was around. Not that he expected anyone to be at the academy at six in the morning, but still, better safe than sorry.

Finding no one in the area, Naruto rushed to the right corner of the academy and stood ten feet out from the point of the corner. He then took out a piece of paper with a seal on it and placed it on the ground before channeling some chakra into it. The ink on the paper burned as it transferred from the paper to the ground before it completely disappeared. Naruto rushed to the other three corners and did the same there before heading to the roof and putting a slightly different seal there as well.

He next quickly rushed to the hospital and placed different kinds of seals on the actual walls and roof of the hospital. Satisfied with his work, Naruto took off back to his apartment. He had two hours until the exams started at nine and he wanted to get some breakfast before they started. Today was going to be a long day after all.


	27. Chunnin Exams: Let The Games Begin

Chunnin Exams: Let The Games Begin

It was currently five minutes to nine and the stadium was packed. Sakura looked around from where she was standing with the rest of the contestants for the final exam in awe at how many people were packed into the stadium.

She noticed with a jolt that neither of her teammates were there though and started worrying as the proctor was looking at his watch.

She wasn't the only one who had noticed though. All of the other contestants had noticed and had various thoughts ranging from smug arrogance to calm indifference.

'Naruto and Sasuke better get here quick.' Sakura thought while biting her lower lip.

'Looks like the failure has realized that he cannot win even if he tried.' Neji thought to himself as he smirked to himself.

'Where is Uzumaki? He's going to be late.' Gaara thought looking around without turning his head as he scanned his surroundings. His brother and sister had similar thoughts.

All of a sudden, a vortex of wind and flame appeared as Naruto used a combined wind and fire elemental shunshine.

The crowd roared as they saw the unusual method that Naruto had entered the stadium and Naruto grinned before giving a quick wave as he looked around before getting in line next to his teammate. In the stands, two brown haired Genin that were sitting next to each other shook their heads as they thought the same thing.

'Show off.'

He gave nods to the sand team which were returned as he took his place. He noticed that Hayate wasn't the one who seemed to be proctoring but shrugged it off thinking that the Leaf's resident sword master was probably somewhere where he could be more use when the invasion started.

He cocked his eyebrow as he noticed something about Sakura. Her long hair that had reached halfway down her back was now much shorter, only reaching her shoulders. She had also got rid of the long split battle dress she had worn before and traded it for one that only reached just above her knees.

Sakura saw this and knowing what she was about to be asked said "The dress had been getting in the way for a while now and I realized that shorter hair was better in the long run."

Naruto nodded at this and looked around again before he frowned as he noticed that Sasuke wasn't there yet.

That frown quickly turned into a grin as a minute later another vortex, this one with wind and lightning suddenly came into existence right where Naruto had just been.

The crowd roared even louder as two figures appeared back to back.

Naruto shook his head as he said "Cutting it a little close eh guys?"

Kakashi rubbed the back of his head before he said "Hey, we're on time aren't we?"

Naruto just shook his head before noticing that Sasuke had also changed his appearance. He was now in a black one piece outfit with belts running along one of his arms and his hair was now longer as well. He still had a chicken butt in the back though.

Naruto smirked as he thought that before getting serious as Sasuke took his position and the proctor snapped his pocket watch shut before turning to Kakashi and asking him to leave the arena.

Kakashi left with a wave and saying good luck to his students before he performed a regular shunshine to the stands.

The proctor turned to the contestants and said "Backs straight Genin! Today, you are the star attractions."

All of the Genin stood ramrod straight as Naruto instantly went into parade rest. The proctor smirked at Naruto's stance before turning around and going into parade rest himself.

Up in the Kage booth, the third smiled softly as he looked down at the contestants. He then noticed movement to his left and his smile grew as he saw a figure in similar robes as his walked up.

"Ah, Kazekage, my friend, glad you could make it. I bet you're tired from your trip."

You could tell the Kazekage smirked behind his face mask that only left his eyes showing as he sat down and said "Not at all my friend. Though it is a good thing these exams were not held in Sand. I doubt a man your age could have made the trip. Don't you think it's about time you chose a successor?"

Sarutobi laughed and said "Oh, I wouldn't bury me yet, my friend. I still have a few more years yet."

The Kazekage narrowed his eyes imperceptibly as he thought 'We shall see old man.'

Back down in the arena, Naruto's eyes also narrowed a little as he not only sensed a chakra presence he had felt before, but picked up a strong smell of snake as well. Looking up at the Kage booth, with just his eyes, he thought 'Does he actually believe we don't know what he has planned?'

He heard his father start to growl in his mind before he said **"I don't know, and I don't care. What I do know is that he's not going to get away so easily this time."**

Naruto mentally nodded before focusing back on the booth as the old man stood up and began a speech.

The Hokage cleared his throat before he used a justu to slightly raise his voice and relying on the acoustics of the stadium to do the rest.

"Welcome fellow Leaf citizens and guests to the fiftieth bi-annual chunnin exams! Today, we will witness some of the finest as they display their abilities in hopes of obtaining the rank of chunnin! Lets give our ten contestants a round of applause!"

The crowd roared as the old man sat back down.

The proctor turned back around to face the Genin and said "Well the first two contestants please stay down here. The rest of you head to the contestants' balcony until your match."

Shikamaru and Temari stayed down in the arena while the rest took off to the stairs at one end. Naruto noticed he and Sasuke were the last going up and took advantage of that fact.

Grabbing Sasuke's wrist, he ignored Sasuke's quick glance as he tapped out a quick message to Sasuke. Sasuke's eyes narrowed as he translated the message before he gave a quick nod, although Naruto could tell that he was not happy about it.

The two came to the balcony and went to the railing where they could watch the upcoming matches.

Back down in the arena, Temari and Shikamaru had moved into position as the proctor got ready to begin the match.

Before he began though, Shikamaru adjusted his kunai pouch as he looked at Temari and asked "Do you mind if we switch places?"

Temari cocked an eyebrow and asked "Why do you want to switch?"

Shikamaru just shrugged and Temari groaned before saying "Fine, it's not like it makes a difference which side I beat your lazy behind on."

The two switched sides before the proctor told them to begin before jumping back.

Temari started to reach for her fan, but quickly found to her surprise that she couldn't move. Her eyes widened as she shouted "What the hell? Why can't I move?"

Shikamaru sighed as he lowered his hands from a sign and said "Troublesome, look down."

Temari did and her eyes widened as she saw her shadow connected to Shikamaru's.

Shikamaru then said "It would have been much too troublesome to fight you this early in the day from my side since there wouldn't be as many shadows. That's why I wanted to switch places so I had the sun behind me. Never let your opponent choose the battlefield."

He then caused both to walk to each other as he pulled a kunai from his pack that he had moved so that it was positioned on the opposite side than Temari's and placed it against her neck. Temari gritted her teeth as her own hand went through the same motions but came up empty handed.

Shikamaru looked her dead in the eye and said "Yield."

Temari groaned before she growled out "I yield."

The proctor smirked as he said "Due to the fact that Temari is incapable of combat, Shikamaru wins."

Shikamaru instantly dropped his justu and started walking back to the balcony with his hands in his pockets.

Temari stomped off the field after him while muttering to herself.

Up in the balcony, Naruto shook his head and thought to himself 'It was a good strategy but he's still a lazy bum.'

Kyubi snorted as he kept watching to see how his adopted son's teammate handled her fight.

The crowd were murmuring in disappointment as they commented on how lame the first match had been and how they hoped none of the rest were that bad.

The proctor looked up at the balcony and said "Well Dosu Kinuta and Sakura Haruno please come down here."

Naruto clapped a hand on Sakura's shoulder and said "Good luck out there Sakura."

Sakura nodded before she walked down the stairs behind Dosu who had took off as soon as the proctor had called him.

Once both were facing each other in the arena, the proctor bit on his senbon before he said "Begin." He quickly jumped clear as the two started moving.

Dosu instantly started running to get as close to Sakura as possible. He knew that he couldn't get the element of surprise on this one since everyone had seen what his gauntlet did in the prelims.

But she had began making hand signs as soon the match began. Before Dosu took two steps, Sakura dived out of the way into the ground like it was water drawing murmurs from the crowds.

Naruto cocked his eyebrow at the justu used as he thought to himself 'She learned that justu in one month? Impressive. And it's a good idea to hide underground. Lets see what else you've got Sakura.'

Dosu started looking around trying to figure out where Sakura would pop out while moving around so that she could not use the knowledge of where he had been against him.

Turns out he was worrying about the wrong thing as Naruto started to feel an element being manipulated.

His eyes shot to the spot in the ground where he felt the underground lake that was buried there about five feet down to help water users fight was being manipulated just as water shot out like a geyser.

The crowd's murmurs increased as five more geysers burst out of the ground at equal intervals around the arena and kept pouring water out. Soon, the water was a foot deep and Dosu had started water walking so that he could keep his full maneuverability.

Naruto whistled at how much water Sakura was able to move in under a minute as others in the stands were doing the same.

Sakura soon surfaced behind Dosu and he turned around when he sensed her as she quickly flashed through hand signs. Before Dosu could do anything, she finished her hand signs and called out her technique.

"Water Style: Water Needle Justu!"

Right after she called her attack, all the water shot into the air actually causing both fighters to drop a foot to the now mostly dry ground as it began forming into a countless number of needles of water that were all oriented toward the sound nin.

Everyone's jaws dropped and Naruto was unashamed that his did as well as he thought 'What the hell? What the heck was she doing during that month to get that kind of chakra reserve to pull that off?'

Sasuke's eyes widened as he said "Dang. I knew she had completed water manipulation a week after the prelims, but that's nuts."

Naruto nodded before he then noticed the sweat that had started to pour off his teammate and realized that she could probably only hold the technique for about ten seconds.

Sakura kept a hard face as she said "You have two choices here. Yield, or become a pincushion."

Dosu studied Sakura and smirked before saying "Nice try girl. But you don't have the chakra to back that claim."

Sakura sighed before she gestured and the needles began merging before dropping. Dosu smirked again before Sakura made another fast set of hand signs and cried out "Water Style: Water Rush Justu!"

Dosu's eyes widened as the water all around him rushed towards him and hit him from all sides. The water swirled around the sound nin as all of the water did its best to hit him before it compacted into a large dome with Dosu in the middle.

Sakura walked up and everyone noticed how much easier she was breathing now that there was only one body of water to manipulate.

Naruto shook his head with a small smile while he thought 'Nice Sakura. You knew he might call it a bluff and try to wait out your ability to keep all those individual needles in the air so you set up a more basic justu that you knew had a bigger chance of success.'

Sakura walked to the dome and stopped a short step away from touching the dome. She smirked at the glare Dosu gave her and said "Give up. I can keep that up till you drown and it's not a bluff this time."

Naruto shook his again as he thought 'Where did this Sakura come from? She usually isn't like this. Though if it's an act for intimidation purposes she's doing a good job.'

However, before Dosu could respond in any way, the proctor cleared his throat and spoke up drawing everyone's attention.

"Due to her opponent being incapable of fighting anymore, Sakura Haruno wins."

Everyone cheered as Sakura released the dome of water and Dosu glared at her. Sakura ignored this as she shot a fist into the air. The proctor smirked as he used a water moving justu to sink the water back underground from where it had originally came from as Sakura ran back to the balcony with a huge grin on her face. Dosu stomped off the field in a bad mood after her.

As Sakura sat down on a bench on the balcony and leaned forward with her hands on her knees, Naruto came over and sat down before he put a hand on her shoulder.

He smiled at her when she looked up and he said "Good job out there Sakura. That was amazing when you made all those needles and held them as long as you did."

Sakura nodded, but was too tired to say anything else after the adrenaline rush from winning wore off as Naruto handed her one of the soldier pills that he always kept on him during missions for in case his teammates needed them. And it was obvious to Naruto that Sakura would need a lot of energy in a short amount of time. Even if the exam didn't get past the first few rounds, she was going to be fighting again soon.

Sakura gratefully took the pill as she leaned against the wall as Naruto headed back to the railing to watch the next fight. She frowned a little as she mentally translated the message that Naruto had given her via miniature chakra pulses that were so small she had only detected them when they brushed against her body when he had his hand on her shoulder.

The message had been short and to the point: Get ready for fight. Sand team allies.

Back down in the arena, the proctor bit on his senbon needle before calling out "Well Shino Auburame and Kankuro please come down?"

Kankuro gritted his teeth as he was mentally cursing the fact that he had to conserve chakra before he leaned out of the balcony and said "Proctor, I forfeit. I'm not prepared enough to fight against the advantage my opponent has."

Booing was heard through the crowd as Naruto shook his head as he thought 'I know why he really doesn't want to fight Shino, but I still don't like him forfeiting without a fight like that.'

He heard his father sigh and said "True, it seems like a disappointment that he made it past the prelims only to forfeit his first fight without even starting, but you have to remember what's going to happen soon."

Naruto mentally nodded while Sasuke and Sakura looked at Kankuro with a frown. They weren't the only ones but they both knew that a much larger fight than one between two chunnin hopefuls was going to happen soon.

Shino adjusted his sunglasses and those who knew him knew that a small frown had formed on his face.

The proctor sighed although Naruto suspected he knew it might happen beforehand. After the booing calmed down somewhat, he said "Very well, since Kankuro forfeits, Shino Auburame wins. Well Naruto Uzumaki and Neji Hyuga please come down."

Naruto grinned as he headed to the stairs. 'Finally! Time to give these guys one heck of a show.'

Neji got a smug look on his face as he followed. 'Fate has blessed me with an easy win. This will be over in less than a minute.' (Overconfident much?)

Up in the stands, Matto leaned forward in his seat as he said "This is going to be good. If they thought that what Sakura did was amazing, their going to be completely floored by Naruto. I'm sure he's going to run Neji to the ground."

Heza nodded and said "Yeah, no kidding. Naruto and Neji were practically rivals at the academy, though that stuck up brute won't ever admit it. Ten bucks says that Naruto uses Gentle Fist moves at least once just to piss Neji off."

Matto smirked and said "I'm not betting on that when I know for a fact that he will use it. It's in his nature to throw people for a loop when he has a large audience."

Heza smirked as well before saying "Hey, it was worth a shot wasn't it?"

Matto just chuckled as he shook his head. By that time, both contestants had exited the stairs and were halfway to the proctor.

In another part of the stands where Hinata was sitting with her father and sister, along with other Hyuga clan members, Hiashi turned to his youngest daughter and said "Pay close attention Hanabi. Neji is the best user of the Gentle Fist style, even better than your sister. And Uzumaki is one of the best overall shinobi in his generation. It was with his help that your sister became so strong."

Hanabi looked down in wonder at the two fighters while Hinata got a small smile at her father's words of praise not only for her but her boyfriend as well.

Back in the arena, Naruto disengaged his weights as he got ready to fight not only Neji but a much larger group of opponents directly afterwards. When he got into position, he looked up behind Neji at the kage booth and saw the third smiling down at him. He smiled as well before he got serious and shifted his focus back to his opponent.

In the kage booth, Sarutobi turned to the Kazekage and said "Prepare yourself, my friend, for you are about to see two of our best rookies at work."

The Kazekage rose an eyebrow at this statement before he looked back down.

An Anbu in the stand in a cloak with a hood slightly leaned forward from where he was standing as he thought to himself 'Give me a good show Naruto. After all, I want to be entertained before we begin.'

The proctor began the match and jumped back as the two Genin stared at each other. Neji smirked as he got into a loose Gentle Fist style before he said "You should give up Uzumaki. There is no way a failure such as yourself can win against me. It is your fate to lose, just as it was Lady Hinata's."

Naruto smirked as he got into the exact same stance as he said "I swear Neji, your starting to sound like a broken record. How you can just stand there with that three foot pole shoved up your ass is beyond me."

Many in the Hyuga family felt their eyes widen at the perfect stance Naruto went in as they all thought "An outsider knows how to use the Gentle Fist?"

Neji frowned at the stance and outright scowled at Naruto's words. Glaring as he activated his Byakugan, he said "If you think you can use the Gentle Fist style just because Lady Hinata showed it to you then you are a bigger fool than I thought."

Naruto chuckled as he said "Typical Hyuga arrogance. I wasn't taught the Gentle Fist by Hinata, I helped her with it. I've known Gentle Fist since the academy Neji. You can thank Mizuki-sensei for that. After all, he knows over fifty different Taijustu styles. The only ones in the leaf who knows more styles would be Gai-sensei and our Hokage." (Iruka knows just as many as Mizuki, but he doesn't advertise that fact since he wasn't the one teaching Naruto Taijustu.)

Neji's eyes narrowed at this while up in the stands the Hyugas began muttering to themselves about how an academy teacher could apparently teach non-Hyugas their style. Hiashi frowned slightly at this but didn't worry too much about it since he knew that both Mizuki and Iruka knew the style. He had been their team sensei when they were Genin after all. (Others have used this idea and I decided to do the same since it helps explain how Naruto could learn the style.) He had both promise him they wouldn't teach it to others but could understand why Mizuki would teach it to Naruto.

Back in the arena, Neji literally growled before he spat out "You may know the style, but without the Byakugan, you have no way of using it properly. You are still a failure and I'll prove it to everyone here that you can not defeat fate!"

With that, Neji launched himself at Naruto at a pace he thought was fast enough and shot a palm strike at Naruto, determined to end it in one move. His strike was met by one of Naruto's own as he took a page out of Hinata's book from the prelims and blocked Neji's strike.

Neji's eyes widened slightly before Naruto shot his left hand forward and hit Neji with a strike to his sternum at high speed. The strike hit and Neji went flying. He landed five feet away as Naruto slipped back into his stance with a serious expression on his face.

Naruto's hands began glowing with chakra as Neji got up rubbing the spot where he was hit. He realized that Naruto hadn't put chakra into the blow and was wondering why.

Naruto smirked again and said "Now imagine if I had actually put chakra in that last shot Neji. What does your so called 'fate' say now?"

Neji gritted his teeth in anger and his Byakugan got a fierce look as he glared at the blond before rushing at Naruto as fast as he could and starting launching palm strikes with a vengeance. Naruto's smirk stayed on his face as he easily met strikes with his own, diverted blows, or just plain dodged them using bits and pieces of the snake style. The crowd roared at the display of skill from both fighters as they appeared to be in a deadly dance.

This went on for a full three minutes before Naruto had enough and slipped under a palm strike and sent Neji flying with a Gentle Fist strike to Neji's stomach. Neji landed in a heap as the noise from the crowd increased.

Neji slowly rose while holding his stomach before he got back into his stance. Naruto shook his head as he said "Give it up Neji, you can't possibly hope to hold out against someone with my reserves in a fight. Especially a Taijustu fight."

Neji growled again and Naruto was starting to wonder if secretly Neji was actually a werewolf before putting that thought to the back of his mind until all the fighting was done.

Neji once again shot at Naruto who got ready to meet his palm strike with another again before Neji did something unexpected. Instead of continuing his strike, he began turning at high speed as a dome of chakra appeared around him.

Naruto's eyes widened as his strike hit the dome and he was shot backwards. He back flipped before landing on his feet and sliding about ten feet from his opponent.

In the stands, Hinata and Hiashi both felt their eyes widen as they thought 'Branch members aren't taught rotation. Did he learn that on his own?'

Neji got a smug look on his face as he obviously thought he now had an advantage.

Naruto saw the look on Neji's face and grinned. His face was practically shouting out "I know something you don't know!"

Neji snarled at the look on Naruto's face which just made Naruto burst out into laughter.

Neji couldn't take it anymore and shouted "What's so funny!"

Naruto got his laughter under control before saying "You are. You think that just because you've mastered one of the best techniques that Hyugas use for defense you can beat me." Naruto's grin turned feral as he continued "But you're forgetting one key fact. I'm a primarily wind user, and wind cuts through ANYTHING."

Just as he said this, Naruto coated his entire right arm in wind chakra and shot off at Neji who instantly started his rotation again. However, as soon as Naruto got close, his arm went straight through the dome with no resistance and he nicked Neji in the side. It became quite clear to everyone in the audience that Naruto could have taken at least one of Neji's arms off since he was aiming down low instead of arm level.

Every single member of the Hyuga family's eyes bugged out at how Naruto had easily defeated the technique.

Neji jumped as far back as he could get while he held his side where little bit of blood was starting to flow. Nothing serious but the wound hurt like hell from how the wind had torn the skin.

Naruto smirked and said "Give up yet?"

Neji growled and shouted "Never! I will not lose! Fate will not allow it!"

Naruto got a hard look on his face before he got a fox grin making everyone nervous.

He then blew the crowd away as he bit his thumbs and started doing one handed hand signs with both hands. As he finished he shouted out "What's your fate got to say about this Neji? Summoning justu!"

He slammed both hands down on the ground and a huge amount of smoke came up shrouding the whole arena floor in a smokescreen.

As it cleared, the leaf civilians started to freak at the sight that met their eyes. Four shadow clones surrounded Neji with both swords unsealed with their fox blades forming a box around his neck. Naruto was still standing where he had did his justu with that grin still on his face. And surrounding the two shinobi was a ring of toad and fox swordsmen, at least fifty of them all together. But that's not what caused the leaf civilians and to a small extent the shinobi to freak out. No, what really got their attention was the fact that most of the foxes had multiple tails. Some even had up to five tails. Each fox had the same number of swords as tails as well leaving no doubt what they could do with said tails.

(For those wondering Tsumiaya is a one tailed. I originally thought that she should be at least a six or seven tail maybe even eight, but I decided to make the multiple tails swordsman and I just picture Tsumiaya fighting like a regular fox except being able to use justu.)

Each fox and toad had their swords out and looked ready to unleash hell in an instant's notice as they all got predator's grins on their faces which the clones had as well making Neji start to sweat. He would have swallowed if he thought he wouldn't cut himself on the blade that was pressed against the front of his throat.

Naruto, enjoying every second of this said "Still believe in fate Neji? Personally, I believe in hard work to win, and if that don't work than calling the cavalry definitely does. Now yield before we give you a taste of true warfare."

Neji shakily rose his hand and said "Proctor, I yield."

The proctor nodded and said "Naruto Uzumaki wins."

The crowd was still trying to pull itself together but Naruto wasn't going to give them the chance. As soon as the clones pulled back from Neji, the original pulled out his fox sword and the one closest to the kage booth brought its own fox sword up.

Both focused lighting chakra into their blades before shooting it straight at the so called Kazekage.

Their was a huge explosion as the two bolts of lightning stroke dead center before falling feathers soon started appearing all around the stadium as the original shot off towards the booth where two figures were leaping out of the smoke from the two blasts while sealing his sword on the way.

The clones as well as the toads and foxes all shot off in different directions to take on the sound and sand nin that had been hiding in the crowd ready to defend the others. The invasion had begun.


	28. Chunnin Exams: Home Field Advantage

Chunnin Exams: Home Field Advantage

Author's Notes: Hey guys, sorry for the late update, but I had to go back and fix up the rest of my earlier chapters. I recommend going back to the beginning and rereading since I added little bits and pieces as well as fixed the format and grammar problems. Any way, let's get started.

Forest Outside Of The Hidden Leaf Village One Hour Before Naruto's Match Against Neji

The original shadow clone from the morning was currently crouched in a tree close to a squad of sound ninja waiting for a certain signal. A fox and toad were in the trees behind him and Rigeoned was currently crouched beside him and was keeping an eye out as the clone "channel surfed" as he witnessed what the other clones were doing via mental link.

'I'm glad boss' father managed to find a way for us to relay information without dispelling ourselves. It really comes in handy being able to see what boss and the other clones are doing in real time without having that time delay that comes from memory transfer. That and we can finally have conversations without worrying about someone picking up any radio messages that would give us away.'

The clone smirked at that last thought since that was exactly what some of the other clones in other squads were currently doing as the last few squads positioned themselves for the operation that was soon to take place. Some were reporting in while others who were already in position were commenting on the fights they were going to be watching through the originals point of view. Some were even making "bets" on the different outcomes of the matches that were about to begin.

The original clone cocked his head as he heard the bets being made and shook his head. He doubted that when Kyubi had begun trying to figure out a way for the original and clones to send information without wasting chakra by using shadow clone memory transfers after the wave mission, that he did so with the thought of the clones making bets in real time was one of the things he thought they would use them for.

He mentally "heard" the Kyubi's chuckle as he heard that thought. Kyubi was able to hear everything that was going on since the mental link only worked when his chakra was present in the clones. Though this wasn't a problem really since even if the original didn't draw on that power to transfer to the clones, each clone still had a miniscule amount of it anyway. Though compared to the original, it would have been like a drop in an ocean.

Shaking his head again to pull himself away from such thoughts, the clone looked out of his own eyes to quickly scan his surroundings. Mentally nodding to himself when he noticed nothing that would need his attention here, he focused on sending a one on one message to the original.

'Sir, this is clone 1. All teams are now in position and waiting on your signal.'

'Roger clone 1. Better get comfortable. This might take a while.'

'Roger that sir. Clone 1 over and out.'

The clone broke the one on one link to the original before focusing on sending a message to all of the clones spread out in the area.

'This is clone 1 to all clones. Better get comfortable boys. Keep an eye out for the signal and enjoy the show.'

There was a chorus of "Rogers" from the rest of the clones as all over the forest teams of shadow clones with foxes and toads dug in to wait for the signal.

Scene Change: Hidden Leaf Academy

Mizuki was inside the teacher's lounge looking through his equipment that he had on him. Looking through his kunai, two of them drew his attention as he picked one up and tested it.

Nodding his head, he set it back down and put everything back while he thought 'It's been a while since Iruka and I fought together. It's going to be fun to let loose again.'

In a classroom, Iruka was sharing similar thoughts as he looked at a kunai pouch in one of the drawers in his desk as the students he was teaching were currently working on a test.

Konohamaru looked up and saw his teacher looking down at something, but as soon as Iruka looked up at him, he quickly went back to his test.

Iruka chuckled before looking out the window.

'Things are going to get very interesting soon.'

Scene Change: Hidden Leaf Village Hospital

Hayate was standing in the hospital lobby as he looked around. The staff was walking around going about their day to day business like nothing was wrong, but Hayate knew that was anything but the case.

The doctors were calm now, but Hayate knew that would change soon. Shaking his head from that thought, he noticed an Anbu with purple hair come in while her squad stayed outside.

Hayate gave a small smile as the Anbu came up to him. The Anbu quickly signed to Hayate and Hayate signed back. After a quick conversation, the Anbu left and Hayate went to a pillar and leaned back as he mentally prepared himself for what was coming.

Time Skip: One Hour Later: Chunnin Exam Stadium

Naruto mentally braced himself for bringing the last group of defenders to the final staging point as Neji went on about how fate would grant him victory. Putting a hard look on his face, he then grinned as he knew how most of the crowd was about to react.

Focusing, he quickly sent out a wide spread message to his clones in the forest.

'Get ready guys, things are about to get interesting.'

He heard a chorus of "Roger" coming from the clones before his grin got even bigger.

Biting both his thumbs, he went through the familiar hand signs before shouting out "What's your fate got to say about this Neji? Summoning justu!"

He felt the drain on his chakra from summoning four battle groups of both toads and foxes even as he soundlessly created and sent four shadow clones to surround Neji.

He kept himself from visibly sagging as he gave his ultimatum to Neji while he unconsciously began drawing a small portion of his father's chakra to stay upright.

Those summons may have been man sized, but it was still a rather large number of them. And those four five tailed foxes that would be heading to the gates and hospital took a bit more than the rest as well.

Add in the four clones with a ton of chakra sent to them as well, and Naruto's regular chakra reserves were getting a bit low.

Mentally shaking his head as he got ready for what he had to do next, he unsealed his fox sword as his clones stepped back from Neji. Catching one of his clone's eyes, the two nodded imperceptibly to each other before charging lightning chakra to their blades.

As one, the two turned and launched their lightning attacks at the so called Kazekage and the original mentally smirked as he saw the imposter's eyes widening. He mentally noted the third jumping clear as soon as he started swinging before disengaging his weights.

Mixing the chakra that came back from the weights with some more of his father's, Naruto shot off towards the kage booth while resealing his sword.

On his way up, he heard his father say **"I'm taking over son. Get some rest."**

Naruto mentally nodded, glad for the chance to rest. He appeared in his mindscape and entered his father's cage as red chakra shot out of the cage in waves.

Back outside, Naruto's body grew a chakra cloak, going into justu possession mode just as he reached the kage booth.

Kyubi looked through his son's eyes as he saw Sarutobi and Orochimaru facing each other on the roof. He then saw four figures heading to separate corners and instantly knew what they planned.

Even more chakra added itself to the cloak forming eight tails as Kyubi shot his son's body forward while thinking to himself. **'Uh-uh. You are not starting this fight without me!'**

Shooting past a squad of Anbu also rushing as fast as possible to the fighters, Kyubi managed to enter the area where the two fighters were at just as the purple barrier closed drawing surprised looks from Orochimaru and Sarutobi as the possessed blond skidded to a stop next to the village leader.

One of the four people who was holding the barrier cursed before saying "Shit, someone got in!"

The one closest to her said "Relax. Lord Orochimaru will be just fine."

Outside the barrier, four Anbu looked inward at the three fighters. They could now see what had shot past them and one Anbu swore.

"Damn it! If it's not enough Lord Hokage is facing Orochimaru, now he's got the demon brat to deal with as well!"

The Anbu in a white cloak who was obviously the leader of the squad shook his head and said "Fool. Does it look like Uzumaki wants to fight Lord Hokage? At least now he has some help."

Another Anbu nodded and said "Yeah. Uzumaki is one of the best of his generation. And that's without the Kyubi's chakra. Add that into the equation and I'm sure he's close to unstoppable."

The others nodded and looked inside to watch the up coming fight.

Back in the barrier, Kyubi smirked at the looks on their faces before getting into a Taijustu stance. Looking out of the corner of his eye to the old leader, he said **"Hope you don't mind me giving you a hand Lord Hokage, but I've got a bone to pick with this snake."**

Sarutobi chuckled and said "Not at all. If you don't mind me asking though, what happened to Naruto?"

Kyubi smiled and said **"Don't worry, the kit is just resting right now. Getting everything ready took a bit of a toll on him."**

The Hokage nodded at this and got ready to fight his old student.

Orochimaru got a sick grin on his face before he said "Ku, Ku, Ku, well now. It must be my lucky day today. I get to not only get rid of the old man but also the Kyubi's jinchuriki as well."

Inwardly he thought 'I thought at first that with the Kyubi brat here my plans were in trouble, but now that I think about it, it is actually a blessing in disguise he's here. Especially with what I have planned.'

Kyubi narrowed his eyes when he heard this as he got ready to finally kill the man who had caused both him and his adopted son so much pain.

Scene Change: Forest Outside Of The Hidden Village

All the clones had been watching the fights at the stadium and got ready as soon as they "saw" the original summon the toads and foxes at the final staging point.

As soon as the lighting attacks were launched, the original clone opened a link and said 'All clones, operation is a go, I repeat operation is a go."

With that, each clone in the forest shot off towards the groups of Sand and Sound shinobi that they were close to with the foxes and toads right on their tails.

The enemy squads that were composed completely of Sound ninja never stood a chance. Blades of wind as well as streams of fire and lightning struck each ninja down dead before they even knew what happened.

Those squads that had a mix of Sound and Sand ninja in them found most of the Sound being taken down not only by summon commando squads but by the Sand ninja as well when most of them turned on the Sound as soon as they saw the Leaf squads.

Most fully Sand squads simply raised their hands showing they were not enemies when the Leaf squads appeared while the few Sand ninja that didn't soon found their comrades pinning them to the ground.

In the three areas where summoning rituals were being performed by Sound Ninja, massive fireballs sent from toads landed in the center of the circles completely ruining the seals necessary for the summons before the Sound Ninja were killed in flashes of steel as the clones and foxes with swords from the two squads sent to handle each site made quick work of them.

Scene Change: Academy Time: Ten Minutes Since Invasion Has Begun

Iruka and Mizuki both perked up at the same time when they sensed a perimeter seal nearby flare. The two quickly exited the building knowing that it was time to get started. Iruka had told the class that if anyone left the building then they would have detention for a month.

It was a serious enough threat that for once there was no argument. Most of the other teachers made the same threat as they moved to the entrances to defend them if Mizuki and Iruka failed.

The two friends met up outside the main entrance of the academy just as a couple squads of Sound ninja entered the courtyard.

Seeing apparently just two academy teachers defending the building, the Sound ninja started laughing.

Mizuki and Iruka cocked their eyebrows before Mizuki said "Time to test Naruto's seals."

Iruka nodded and the two ran through a quick series of hand signs before a shimmering gold barrier raised itself around the entire building.

The students and teachers were surprised at the barrier and most of the sound ninja frowned before smirking. They obviously thought that if they took out the two who rose the barrier that it would fall.

In their minds, it was extremely stupid for them to be outside of the barrier.

Meanwhile, Mizuki and Iruka both pulled out two rather unique kunai and held them like they were duel wielding two swords drawing strange looks from everyone.

The kunai appeared to have a rectangular cross guard below the blades and were black with lines of silver in them.

Everyone was further surprised when Iruka and Mizuki nodded to each other before both channeled their fire nature chakra into the kunai. The kunai quickly turned into ninjatos made out of fire which the two held loosely in their hands.

The sound ninja all took a step back as Mizuki said "Just like old times eh Iruka?"

Iruka smirked and nodded before the two got into stances. Mizuki smirked and said "Bet I get more kills than you."

Iruka frowned and said "Your on. Just don't make anything too gruesome. Don't want to give the kids too many nightmares after all."

Mizuki also frowned while looking back over his shoulder at all the students who had lined up at the windows.

Turning back around, he nodded before the two launched themselves into the squads.

Scene Change: Hidden Leaf Hospital Time: Ten Minutes Since Invasion Has Begun

Hayate jumped when a large justu tried to destroy the building after it came out of nowhere. Tried being the key word since as soon as it touched the building's walls, seals activated and shot it right back at the sender.

Hayate breathed a sigh of relief and got ready to face the invaders at close range. After all, the enemy would figure out eventually that personel would have to be able to get through so the wounded could be treated.

Hayate then blinked as he saw a group of foxes and toads appear in front of the building from the rooftops. But what really got his attention was that one of those foxes had five tails and five swords as well.

The five tail drew the swords by holding them with chakra in its tails and twirled them before digging them into the ground. Looking into the hospital and catching Hayate's eye, it said "We'll hold them out here, you take whoever gets past us."

Hayate could only blink and then nod at this and the five tail looked back to where it knew enemies would soon be coming from. Blinking again, Hayate thought 'I knew that Uzumaki was going to send support for this place, but I thought he meant some shadow clones.'

Scene Change: North Gate Time: Thirty Minutes Since Invasion Has Begun

Ibiki was looking through a pair of binoculars at what had used to be a ritual summoning circle while he was standing on the village wall. There were two whole squads with him that were also looking out into the forest.

One of the Chunnin next to him shook his head and said "I gotta give the kid credit. When he wants to, Uzumaki can be a real force to reckon with. No wonder his name means maelstorm."

Ibiki nodded as the rest of the defenders agreed.

Sensing a group of presences behind him, he noticed a group of toads and foxes being led by a five tailed fox.

Ibiki noted in interest that almost all of their blades had blood on them.

The five tail came to stand beside him and gave a military bow before saying "Ibiki Morino?"

Ibiki nodded and said "Correct."

The five tail nodded his head again and said "We have taken care of the Sound ninja that were in the city before the invasion began for this sector. The undercover Sand ninja have mostly all surrendered without a fight and those who are on our side are currently helping to guard those who aren't. As we speak, the other squads are finishing up on their ends as well. My orders are now to assist you in any way you deem necessary until this battle is over."

Ibiki nodded and said "Good to hear, although with what Uzumaki has done, this whole thing should be over pretty soon."

The five tail nodded as well before looking out into the forest as well.

Another presence came up to the group and everyone turned to see Jiraiya landing next to the five tail.

Looking down to it he said "I take it everything is taken care of on your end?"

The fox nodded and said "Yes. We've taken care of any Sound nin on our end and are just waiting everything to wind down now. I take it you were successful as well?"

Jiraiya nodded and said "Yeah, I took care of that Sound summoner they tried sneaking in before he could pull one off."

The group just nodded before looking back out to the forest.

Scene Change: Chunnin Stadium Time: Just After Signal Sent

As the lightning attacks from the original and one of the shadow clones was launched, the other three clones were already moving. The clones split and each took a sector of the stadium as some of the toads and foxes followed while the rest took off into the village.

Time: Thirty Seconds After Signal

One of Naruto's clones shot up the wall between the arena and the stands and sealed his swords before sheathing his hands in wind. Using his wind palms, the clone began tearing through anyone who was foolish enough to try and get close to him as he began clearing the area of enemy shinobi.

Out of the corner of his eye, the clone noticed two squads of Sound ninja coming towards him. But before he could even comprehend engaging them, a massive sword cut straight through half of them while the rest fell to senbon needles.

The clone jerked as he thought 'How the hell did we not realize those two were here?'

The clone smiled at the two "civilians" who were currently standing over the others who were caught in the Genjustu. One held a massive sword while another held more senbon in his hand.

Dashing over to them he said "Zabuza, Haku! What are you guys doing here?"

Zabuza grunted as he put his sword on his shoulder and said "Your Hokage sent a messenger to us a few days ago while we were still in wave. He said he would accept us into the Leaf village ranks if we wanted to join if we came and helped out today."

The clone nodded and said "Well, I'm glad you two came. But now's not the time to talk, so if you'll excuse me." The clone gave a mock salute before launching himself back into the fray.

Zabuza merely shook his head before turning to his apprentice and said "Let's go Haku."

Haku nodded and said "Yes Zabuza."

Both former Mist nin and apprentice then followed the blond.

Time: One Minute After Signal

Matto and Heza were currently back to back with kunai in both hands as they fought off the invaders.

Matto grunted as he blocked a kunai from a sound nin before taking the guy's throat out with another. Quickly catching the next sound nin in the ribs, he said "Man, this is a pain. I know that Sand is on our side, but don't you think they could have cut down the Sound numbers a little before the invasion?"

Heza frowned as she stabbed a Sound nin in the heart before slicing the throat and said "What's the matter Matto? Afraid of a little workout?"

Matto smirked as he kneed the next nin in the groin before slamming his kunai into the bent over shinobi's skull. "No, it just seems a little unfair that we have to keep all these civvies safe and can't use any justu while these guys don't have that problem. The fact that they seem to have more fighters than us only makes it worse."

Heza was about to reply before the two saw three squads coming there way along the top of the stands. However, before they could react, a white hot concentrated stream of fire hit the first squad instantly incinerating them before a stream of water followed and shoved the rest back.

The two looked to where the justu originated and saw one of Naruto's shadow clones standing behind a fox and toad who not only had swords, but fire and water around their blades as well.

Heza cocked an eye and looked and Matto and said "What was that about no justu?"

Matto just chuckled before he and Heza saw a Sound nin trying to sneak up on the trio.

But before the two could warn the group, Naruto's clone flipped his left sword into a reverse grip before focusing chakra into the blade and the sword shot out in length behind him and impaled the man in the chest.

Matto and Heza both raised an eyebrow at the new sword that apparently could shoot out like a toad's tongue and Matto said "Well that was new."

Heza just nodded before the two launched themselves at the next nin in their way.

On the opposite side of the stadium, Lee and one of Naruto's other shadow clones were back to back in the exact same stance with their left fists behind their backs and their right hands held out in front of them. There were bodies of unconscious sound ninja all around them and the two were surrounded by a dozen more.

The clone smirked and said "Just like old times eh Lee?"

Lee nodded and said "It is as you say my eternal rival. It is exactly like that mission that our teams took part in in the Land of Tea against those bandits." (High C-rank bandit raid mission before the destruction chapter that Team 7 and Gai took together.)

Naruto smirked again as the ninja got ready to rush them. Both teens then blurred at the same time before the surrounding nin began dropping like flies.

Nearby, Kakashi and Gai were currently fighting as well.

In another sector, Hinata and the rest of the Hyuga clan had spread out and were defending that sector with the final Naruto clone and Neji working their way towards them.

As the clone drew close to Hinata it said "Looks like your family has everything under control here. Care to join me over to the next section?"

Hinata nodded and the two began cutting their way through with Gentle Fist strikes as they made their way over to a toad/fox duo that were in the next sector over.

Joining the two, Naruto unsealed a short sword and gave it to Hinata before unsealing his fox blade. The two then split up with Hinata helping out the toad and Naruto fighting with the fox.

After the two pairs cleared out that sector, they and the rest of the Leaf and Sand Nin went to the next sector where the contestants for the final exam were doing well in holding their own.

The clone noticed that Dosu was trapped in a sand cocoon as well as a number of other Sound nin as the Sand siblings tore through the ranks with the rooks helping out where needed.

Reaching Sakura and Sasuke who were back to back, the clone said "Hinata and I are going to the next section. Have everyone follow when this one's cleared out."

The two nodded before launching themselves at the next group as Naruto and Hinata's two groups kept cutting through to the next section.

Scene Change Stadium Roof Time: Just After Barrier Raised

Orochimaru stood facing Sarutobi and a Kyubi possessed Naruto.

He had a sick smile on his face as the other two combatants were in stances with serious looks on their faces.

All of a sudden by some unspoken signal, Sarutobi and Orochimaru launched themselves backward as the two went through hand signs.

"Ninja Art: Tile Shuriken Justu!"

"Ninja Art: Shadow Clone Tile Justu!"

"Ninja Art: Shadow Clone Shuriken Justu!"

Tiles on the roof began lifting themselves before multiplying and shot out at the traitor who quickly threw a group of shuriken which also multiplied before hitting the tiles and knocked them away.

Kyubi used the moment of distraction and appeared behind Orochimaru faster than the snake Sannin could react to in his distracted state. Taking advantage of this, the eight tails in Kyubi's chakra cloak swung at Orochimaru and skewered him from all sides.

However, Kyubi knew it couldn't be over THAT quick and jumped away as the man in front of him turned to mud just as a ton of shuriken came after him.

Landing a fair distance away from the traitor, Kyubi pulled out one of his son's kunai and sheathed it in wind chakra before launching it at the man. He was copied by Sarutobi who had seen what Kyubi was doing.

Orochimaru dodged the two high speed projectiles which quickly buried themselves in the roof before launching his arms towards the two.

"Hidden Shadow Snake Hands!"

Snakes suddenly shot out of Orochimaru's sleeves towards the two. Sarutobi jumped back before taking out a kunai ready to slice them apart while Kyubi took a more practical approach.

"**Fire Style: Fire Dragon Justu"**

Orochimaru's eyes widened considerably as Kyubi shot out a fire dragon that was fifteen feet tall that quickly incinerated the snakes before continuing towards the traitor.

As Orochimaru jumped clear of the justu, he saw it continue to travel forward before it slammed into the purple barrier surrounding the fighters.

His eyes widened even farther when he saw the ripples coming from the barrier. He then turned back to his opponents and saw a fierce grin on the possessed blonde's face.

"**What's the matter Orochimaru? Worried about a simple fire dragon? Let me give you something to REALLY fear."**

As soon as he said that, Kyubi's hands blurred before ending on a symbol that none of the others in the area had ever seen before.

Kyubi drew back before shouting out **"Demon Style: Grand Demon Fireball Justu!"**

A white hot thirty foot wide fireball suddenly shot out of Kyubi's mouth and roared it's way towards Orochimaru.

Orochimaru once again dodged the fireball. As it passed by his side, he felt the absolutely insane amount of heat in the fireball and thought to himself that he really didn't want to know what it would have done to him. He then paled considerably when he felt the barrier shudder violently when it made contact.

Then to Sarutobi and Kyubi's confusion, Orochimaru got a sick grin on his face before he chuckled.

"Ku, Ku, Ku, well, I most admit, I had planned on saving this for a bit later. But it seems that I must level the playing field a little early."

Kyubi and Sarutobi's eyes narrowed when Orochimaru said this while wondering just what the traitor had planned.

Orochimaru's hands blurred as he began his justu.

Sarutobi's eyes widened and Kyubi's soon followed as the two recognized the justu.

"Don't tell me you actually mastered THAT justu! I cannot believe that you would stoop that low Orochimaru."

Orochimaru just smiled again as Kyubi began going through his own hand signs to counter the justu with another. Sarutobi decided to prevent the problem at the source and threw shuriken at Orochimaru.

However, Orochimaru finished his hand signs and a purple vortex appeared on the ground in front of him.

Two caskets quickly rose blocking the shuriken while lightning appeared beside the two caskets as if something was struggling to come through. Sarutobi and Kyubi paled when they saw the numbers one and two on the caskets and they both were worried since there was space for one more casket.

'**Damn, I thought I would have more time and there would only be one. It's going to be hell on earth if HE comes through.'** Kyubi thought as he finished his seals as fast as possible.

Behind the caskets, Orochimaru frowned before he grinned seeing the top of another casket.

However, that grin soon faded as he heard Kyubi calling out.

"**Demon Style: Death's Guard Justu!"**

The top of the coffin that was still slowly rising through the mini lightning storm suddenly started glowing red before tendrils of shadow shot out of the vortex and pulled it back down.

Sarutobi and Kyubi sighed in relief as they saw the final casket disappear. Orochimaru frowned before getting that sick smile again.

"Oh well, it would have been amusing watching him destroy this village, but the other two should do just fine for now."

The two caskets opened up and the tops fell to the roof top with loud thuds as the people inside were revealed.

In Naruto's mindscape, Naruto had been watching the fight while remaining inside the cage his father usually stayed in making it easier for his father to maintain control of his body. Behind him, his father was currently in his human form with his eyes closed signifying the type of possession he was currently using with the chakra flowing out of him and through the bars of the cage.

Naruto's eyes widened as he saw the latest development in the fight between the three legends.

'Oh, this is SO not good.'

Back in the outside world, Kyubi heard Naruto's thought and silently agreed, thinking about what one of those people could do, before he noticed something that caused him to mentally smirk. Naruto sensed it and asked what was so funny about their situation, but Kyubi told him he would see in a minute.

Sarutobi's face in the meantime, spoke of multiple emotions from seeing the two people in the caskets as they stiffly walked out. Chief among them was regret at what he allowed his student to become.

Outside of the barrier, the Anbu squad leader gasped as he saw the two people come out of the caskets. Both of the figures were in armor with one in red and the other in blue. Both were pale and looked like they were just dug up from their graves after a few months of being buried.

One of his squad mates turned to him and said "Sir, what's going on? Who are those two? And why do they look to be in such a decayed state."

The leader swallowed and said "Orochimaru has broke the one universal rule of our world that should never be broken. He's brought people back from the dead. Those two are the First and Second Hokages."

The other three Anbu gave soft gasps as they looked at their past leaders in disbelief and horror.

Back in the barrier, the two past leaders looked around before spotting the two facing them. Both looked surprised at who they were facing. Well, as surprised as two dead souls who were brought back to life could be.

The one that came out of the second casket said "Sarutobi, is that you? It looks like the years weren't kind to you. I hope you can forgive us, but it looks like we'll be fighting you." He turned his head and when he saw Orochimaru said "So this is the one who summoned us? Impressive if not sickening."

Sarutobi bowed his head and said "Yes, it's me Tobirama. I never thought that I would see the two of you like this. Please forgive me for what I'm about to do."

The other man listened to this before looking at Kyubi. He squinted as if he was trying to place something before he said "Kyubi? What are you doing inside another host? I thought after my wife released you when she died that you had left this region. Wasn't the only reason why you were so destructive when the rest of the tailed beasts were together was because of Madara? You always were one of the more level headed Demon Lords after all."

Kyubi nodded at this while back in Naruto's mindscape, Naruto's eyes widened since he didn't know that his adopted father had been inside another host before.

"**It's true that I had left this region when your wife died and settled down Hashirama. However, you can thank that traitorous snake behind you and your old 'friend' Madara for my return."**

The first frowned as he asked "Madara is still alive?"

The Kyubi nodded but before he could say anything, Orochimaru stepped up to the two dead leaders and held up two kunai with tags on them. Kyubi's eyes narrowed as he saw the tags.

Raising the kunai to head level Orochimaru said "This is all VERY interesting and all, but I have a village to destroy so I'm afraid I must cut this reunion short."

And with that, he shoved the kunai through the former leaders' skulls. The two stiffened even further as all emotion left their faces. But what shocked everyone even further was the fact that the two's bodies seemed to regenerate until they looked like they were in their prime.

Sarutobi's eyes widened in shock, but before he or Kyubi could say anything, Hashirama locked onto Kyubi and flipped through hand signs at an incredible rate.

"Wood Style: Demonic Suppression Justu!"

Nine pillars of wood with what looked like Mayan dog heads on their tops shot out of the ground and towards Kyubi.

Sarutobi's eyes widened and was about to block the pillars when he caught the smirk on his partner's face.

'What the hell is he smirking about? Doesn't he know what those things do? If he gets hit, Naruto will be defenseless in here.'

That thought process got shot straight to hell though when Kyubi jumped at the pillars that were now just five feet from him.

Landing, right beside the first of the heads, Kyubi swung his left arm and shattered the pillar before spinning on his left foot and shattering the next pillar with a right spin kick. He then flipped over the next pillar before punching into it while he was halfway through the flip. He landed on the shattering wood before launching himself at the next pillar. When he got close enough, he flipped his body and slammed into the pillar with both feet shattering that pillar as well.

By that time, the five pillars that had survived had shot past him and were turning to come at him again. Grinning, Kyubi launched himself into the air where the pillars were arching for the next attack run. Five of his eight tails then shot into the head of each pillar and sent so much energy into them that they each exploded.

Kyubi landed amidst a shower of wood chips and chuckled at the looks on the other two fighters' faces. He then heard his son yelling about how cool that just was and grinned.

Sarutobi, Orochimaru, the four Anbu outside the barrier, and the four Sound nin holding the barrier all had shocked looks on their faces at how Kyubi had destroyed a justu that was supposed to suppress him.

Orochimaru was actually stuttering as he said "H-How? Th-That should have suppressed you!"

Kyubi chuckled again before saying **"You know Orochimaru, for someone who was once called a genius, you sure need to do more studying. The reason that Hoshirama could suppress us Demon Lords was because he made a crystal that could amplify his abilities. And unfortunately for you, you don't have that crystal. Oh sure, this marionette here could most likely suppress a minor demon, but there is no way in hell that fake shell of the first Hokage could suppress the strongest demon in existence on the human plane without it. You screwed up big time when you decided to rely on the ASSUMPTION that the first needed only his wood justu to deal with me!"**

'So that's what you found so funny when you first saw them.' Naruto thought to his father.

"**Indeed."**

Orochimaru paled for a second as the implications sunk into his head. He knew that his former teammate had the crystal so he should have been able to easily obtain it and be able to try to suppress Kyubi again at a later date. That would have been what one could assume any way. However, you could only summon a soul once, and it seemed that he would be losing these two souls by the end of the day. What's worse is he also lost the fourth since the demon lord had used that damn blocking justu.

Orochimaru then growled and said "I may not be able to suppress you now, you damn demon, but I can sure as hell kill you! DESTROY them!" (Angry much?)

As soon as he finished speaking, wood and water rushed at the two defenders who leapt back and started dodging the torrents of water and quickly growing forest. The two landed on a tree temporarily out of sight and reach of the two reanimated Hokages and began thinking up a strategy.

Kyubi turned to Sarutobi and said **"I can get us out of this, but it's going to take some time to set it up."**

Sarutobi nodded and said "What do you need?"

Two cloaked clones with a tail each suddenly came into existence as Kyubi used one of his son's favorite justu before saying **"Just keep them off of me for a minute."**

Sarutobi idly noted that there were now only six tails around the original but nodded anyway before taking off after the clones which had already rushed towards the two former leaders.

The two clones blitzkrieged the Hokages in furious Taijustu moves that would have killed a normal shinobi if they ever connected. As it was, the two were being forced back slowly but surely towards where Orochimaru was watching with a severe frown on his face.

Sarutobi provided support by launching kunai and shuriken whenever he saw an opening.

Back with the original, as soon as Sarutobi took off after his clones, he had immediately started running through hand signs at an insane speed. The justu he was planning on using had an ungodly amount of hand signs and he needed to act fast. He started to head to where his clones and Sarutobi were as he prepared to end this fight.

Back with the others, the clones kept pounding away at their opponents before they suddenly both leapt back to the current Hokage and blocked the earth bullets that Orochimaru had sent while the clones were fighting.

Before anyone could do anything else though, they heard **"Demon Style: Soul Decapitation Justu!"**

The former Hokages suddenly stiffened as their heads started to darken before them and the rest of their bodies slowly crumbled into dust revealing Zaku and Kin. Sarutobi stared in horror at the fact that Orochimaru had sacrificed his own people for the justu.

But before he could say anything though, Orochimaru began screaming in pain. Sarutobi looked in shock at how Orochimaru's arms were beginning to blacken starting at the fingers and moving up to the shoulders.

Both fighters saw the original Kyubi walk out of the forest with his hands once more in that unfamiliar hand sign. Laying eyes on the original, Orochimaru snarled and said "What the hell have you done to me?"

Kyubi had a satisfied smirk on his face as he said **"The justu I just used is one of the strongest Demonic justu out there. It instantly kills the soul of a person before sending them to be judged. It takes up a huge amount of chakra and truth be told, even I can only use it four times a day. However, since you took the most precious thing I held dear away from me, I think it is only fitting that I do the same to you before you die. Your arms are now useless you traitorous snake. All of the justu that you spent so long learning are now beyond your reach."**

Sarutobi looked on in regret as Kyubi said this but found that it definitely seemed like justice was found. However, he did not plan on letting Orochimaru living another day and he was sure that Kyubi wasn't either. Even though the original's cloak was little more than a red haze now, both clones still had their one tail cloaks going strong.

And with Orochimaru in his condition, two one-tailed clones should be more than enough to finish what they started.

Orochimaru snarled through his pain and said "Curse you two! This is not over! You think you may have won but I have ways to get my arms back. I am immortal and will be here long before the two of you descend to the deepest levels of hell!"

Sarutobi stiffened and said "Don't tell me you finished THAT justu?"

Orochimaru got a sick smile on his face before he said "We're pulling out!"

The barrier fell as Orochimaru's guards moved towards their leader and grabbed him before taking off. Kyubi's clones launched fire streams but one of the guards shot out two of his six hands and a golden wall formed out of them which caught the flames.

The wall then fell down through the roof and crashed to the ground causing dust and rubble to come flying out.

Kyubi dispelled his clones with a tired sigh before looking at Sarutobi. Exhausted, he said **"Well that went well."**

Before Sarutobi could reply, Kyubi tiredly dropped the cloak and drew back into the cage while Naruto took control again. He immediately reverted back to his fox form and curled up in a ball and went straight to sleep. The decapitation and death's guard justu were both high powered ones and doing them both really took it out of him.

Back outside, Naruto glanced up at where Orochimaru's guards had sprinted him away to safety as he softly said "I've got a long way to go don't I?"

Sarutobi chuckled and said while ruffling his hair "Don't worry Naruto. Something tells me you will be the best of us all someday, and your well on your way already."

Naruto smiled as the four Anbu came towards them.


	29. Surprises and Happiness

Surprises and Happiness

It was one hour after the failed invasion and Naruto was currently once again in the council room with a headache going on full force as he listened to the roar that was pitifully trying to imitate a civil conversation.

A short while ago, the council had called for a meeting and he had been asked to attend. As soon as he and Sarutobi walked in, the civilian council demanded to know why they had not been told about the invasion before hand since the Hokage obviously knew about it since word of what the "demon brat" had done spread through the ranks like wildfire.

The shinobi side was doing its best not to lose their cool and kill the fools while they tried to explain that it had nothing to do with the civilian side and that they would have given away the fact that they knew.

That of course didn't go well with the civilians and it quickly escalated into a shouting match.

Naruto was standing next to the Hokage who he had been with ever since the two and the Anbu squad had come down from the roof. Both were doing their best to ignore the pointless bickering that was going on in front of them. Finally, Sarutobi had enough and turned to Naruto.

"Naruto, would you please get their attention?"

Naruto nodded before a particular look came to his eyes and he grinned. Sarutobi cocked an eyebrow because he knew that look and was about to ask what the blond beside him was about to do when said blond pulled a scroll from his pocket and unsealed something and pushed the button on it.

!

Everyone jumped and looked at the blond as the air horn that Naruto had unsealed went off. In a corner in the back, Jiraiya snorted at what his godson just did.

Chuckling as Naruto resealed the air horn and put the scroll back in his pocket, Sarutobi said "Thank you Naruto. Now that I have everyone's attention, we can finally get this meeting underway."

The shinobi side instantly sat down ready for business while the civilian side glared at Naruto before following. Sarutobi decided to be the one to start things off.

"As you all know, A little over an hour and a half ago, Sound and coerced Sand shinobi attempted to launch an invasion against this village. Due to Naruto's actions in the previous month, we were able to learn about the invasion a week ago from one of the Sand Jounin. Due to that, we were able to take proper action and prevented any serious damage being done to either this village or its people."

"Proper action?" A civilian member asked incuriously. "You call letting that demon brat unleash an army of damn foxes and using the Kyubi's damn chakra 'Proper Action?' How do you know he won't summon another army and destroy us? He should either be executed right now or imprisoned at the least!"

Most of the civilians were nodding during this before KI levels instantly rose from all the shinobi in the room at the civilian's words. Said civilian started shivering as the rest of the civilians began sweating.

Tsume Inuzuka, clan head of the Inuzuka clan began growling before she ground out "First of all, for your information civilian, there were toads as well as foxes. The toads have been our allies ever since Jiraiya first signed their contract. Do you honestly believe they would allow someone to sign the contract if that person wanted to hurt their allies? Second, young Uzumaki here used the Kyubi's chakra to help the Hokage. He did nothing more today than help out his alpha and the rest of his pack. Get it through your thick skulls that Uzumaki is the jailor of the Kyubi and not the Kyubi himself!"

Another civilian stood up and glared at her before shouting out "Oh yeah? Well I for one would like to know where the brat got the fox summoning contract. Obviously Kyubi gave it to him. Now why would Kyubi do that unless he expected him to use it to destroy this village?"

Before anyone could reply, Naruto burst out into laughter. Everyone turned to him with incredulous looks on their faces.

Getting his laughter under control, Naruto said "You people need to get your facts straight. The only reason Kyubi ever came here in the first place was because of some stupid Genjustu that some Uchiha put him in. If he had his own way, he never would have come here after the first Hokage's wife released him when she died."

Stunned silence took hold of the entire room before Danzo said "Uzumaki, would you please explain that statement?"

Naruto shrugged and said "From what I gathered from the few times I've talked to the big guy when I went into my mindscape, the day of the attack Kyubi met up with an Uchiha who used his Sharingan to put him under an extremely powerful Genjustu and then commanded him to attack the village."

The council frowned but then one shinobi from one of the minor clans said "And you actually believe this?"

Before Naruto could say anything, Sarutobi stepped in and said "It's the truth. Orochimaru perfected a justu That brought back the souls of the first and second Hokages to fight Naruto and me. The detail about the first's wife being a jinchuriki was confirmed by him. The first also stated that Kyubi was the most level headed tailed beast and had left the region once he was freed."

Murmuring permeated the room as the council talked among themselves about this. There had been rumors that Naruto and Sarutobi had to fight the former Hokages, but this was the first time it had been confirmed.

Another civilian finally stood up and said "Even if that is true, there is still the question of how Uzumaki here got the ability to summon foxes. Kyubi is the only one who could have possibly either given him the scroll or at the very least where it was. After all, there has never been a fox summoned before Uzumaki did."

More grumbling from the council before Naruto suddenly felt a tug in his mind. Frowning he said "Sorry people, but I'm going to have to cut this short for a minute."

Before anyone could ask what he meant, Naruto bit his thumb and ran through the necessary hand signs. Slamming his palm down on the table he was standing next to, Rigeoned suddenly appeared in a poof of smoke.

Looking around, Rigeoned then turned back to Naruto and said "Naruto, Tsumiaya wished me to inform you that she has decided to send out the tracker squads to try and locate any of Orochimaru's bases."

Nodding, Naruto said "I see. Please thank her for me Rigeoned."

Rigeoned nodded as well and said "Of course. Till next time Naruto." and with that vanished in another poof of smoke.

Naruto cocked his head in thought for a second before turning to his leader and said "It'll definitely help if they are able to find anything."

Sarutobi nodded and said "Indeed."

The rest of the council was still trying to figure out what just happened until Naruto turned to the council and said "Now then, f there isn't anything else, then I'm leaving.

The civilians glared at the rude dismissal before one of them stood up and said "You're not going anywhere brat until you tell us how you can summon foxes."

Naruto just shrugged and said "Kyubi didn't want a weak host so he had me sign the contract and go train with the foxes for a summer to increase my skill. Now then, if you'll excuse me."

Naruto turned and walked out of the room leaving a sputtering civilian council and an amused shinobi council while Sarutobi just sighed and thought 'Hate to have seen what would have happened if he told them the whole truth.'

Scene change: Two Hours Later At Team 7 Training Grounds

Naruto was laying on the ground panting as Matto and Heza lay to his left panting as well. Heza was between the two and both of Naruto's teammates had proud smiles on their faces since this was the first time they ever had pushed Naruto so far.

Naruto shook his head and said "Damn guys, how the heck did you guys get so good so fast? I mean you guys had to have ninja rehab just under a year ago and you two still forced me to release my weights."

After leaving the council chambers, Naruto had ran into his old teammates and the trio ended up sparring with each other. Matto and Heza had stunned Naruto when the two had ended up being close to Naruto and Lee's speed when they didn't have weights. The two had really pushed Naruto when they had double teamed him.

Matto had a grin on his face as he said "You know how they say that it's when your body heals after training that it gets stronger?"

Naruto nodded before he continued "Well we took that to a whole new level."

Seeing Naruto's confused look, Heza explained "After our normal rehab, Matto and I started wearing chakra weights and added ten pounds each day. We released our weights before the spar."

Naruto's eyes widened as the implications sank in. Bolting up to his knees, he looked at them and asked "Since when?"

Matto smirked and said "We started the week after normal rehab. It was a pain getting the ninja rehab guys to let us do it so soon but it was definitely worth it. Though they told us not to add any more yesterday."

Naruto quickly did the math in his head. 'Ten pounds each day of the week for 49 weeks, that's…'

Naruto's eyes bugged out as he shouted "That's 3,430 pounds! That's close to what Lee and I have! Why the hell didn't you tell me you did that? Do you realize what you could have done to your bodies if that didn't work out properly?"

Matto and Heza flinched as Matto put his right pinkie in his ear as he wiggled it around before saying "Yeesh, Naruto, calm down. We had appointments every other day with the rehab doctors to check and make sure our bodies were handling it properly. Also, I wanted to tell you before you left with your godfather but Heza over here didn't want to."

Naruto looked at Heza with a dazed look with his jaw dropped causing the girl to giggle before saying "I thought it would impress you when we finally sparred again."

Naruto just kept looking and Matto chuckled before saying "I think we broke him."

Heza giggled again before Naruto shook himself out of his shock before he asked "Is there anything ELSE you two kept from me while Kakashi and I were working on the new guys?"

Matto put a finger to his chin in a thinking gesture before saying "Does this count?" before leaning over and quickly kissing Heza who seemed to thoroughly enjoy it.

Naruto's eyes widened further than ever before. Heza chuckled and said "Now I know we broke him."

Matto chuckled as well before Naruto fell down onto his back and began muttering to himself about how teammates shouldn't pull that kind of stuff on their friends one after another.

The other two laughed at this before they stood up and walked over to Naruto before pulling him up as well.

The trio were just about to leave the training field when a Chunnin entered. The Chunnin walked up to them and asked "Naruto Uzumaki, Matto Hirzen, and Heza Tano?"

The three nodded and the Chunnin said "The Hokage wishes to speak to you three."

Matto and Heza got surprised looks on their faces while Naruto frowned before the three took off to the tower via shunshine.

Scene Change: Hokage Tower

The rookies and Team Gai along with the four senseis for the teams were currently standing in the Hokage's office supposedly waiting for three other people to come.

It wasn't hard to figure out that Naruto was one of the three people since his teammates and team sensei were there, but for the life of them, the rest of the rooks couldn't figure out who the other two were. The four Jounin had a pretty good idea but they weren't saying anything.

The rooks were looking around since they normally never came in here while the Jounin simply stood at ease.

Kiba finally couldn't take it anymore and asked "What are we doing here?"

Sarutobi simply smiled and said "Don't worry Kiba, you'll learn as soon as the others come."

Right as he said this, Naruto appeared in a swirl of leaves with Matto and Heza appearing on either side of him in their own mini twisters.

The three stood at attention as Naruto said "Team 7 reporting in as requested sir."

Sarutobi smiled but before he could say anything, Kiba spoke up again "What the heck do you mean by that? I thought Sakura and Sasuke were your teammates."

Sarutobi continued smiling and said "True, Sasuke and Sakura are Naruto's current teammates Kiba. However, they were simply replacements for Team 7 while his teammates recovered from a mission. Matto and Heza here were Naruto's original teammates. Whether or not they rejoin him and Kakashi and help train Sakura and Sasuke shall be seen later, but for now, they have more than earned the right to still be called members of Team 7."

Most of the rooks stared at the two brown haired vets who were still standing in loose attention stances next to their blond friend. They had always wondered who the blonde's former teammates had been but had not expected to ever meet them. Now that they just had, they didn't know what to think.

Hinata, Sakura, and Sasuke of course knew about the two since they had been with Naruto for so long. Hinata smiled at the two and nodded at them and they returned the gesture while Sakura and Sasuke simply gave nods of acknowledgment.

Sarutobi chuckled at the looks on most of the rooks' faces before getting down to business. Clearing his throat to get everyone's attention, he began speaking.

"Now then, now that everyone is here, we can began. Due to the invasion, we were unable to finish the Chunnin Exams. That being said, numerous Jounin and Chunnin took note of how each of you did during the invasion and many gave recommendations based off of your performance then."

Naruto, Matto, and Heza's eyebrows rose at this while Matto asked "Recommendations, Sir?"

Sarutobi nodded and said "That's correct Matto. And due to the fact that your actions were witnessed during what could be called a time of war, I can take those recommendations into account now instead of after the next Chunnin Exam."

The rooks and Team Gai began muttering to themselves while the three vets on Team 7 cocked their heads but decided to remain silent as they listened to their leader.

Sarutobi cleared his throat again and continued when he had everyone's attention again. "Now then, as I just said, I can take proper action now instead of waiting six months for the next exam concerning these recommendations. After discussing with the council, we have come to the conclusion that a number of you have proved that you are ready for the rank of Chunnin."

The rooks began looking excited as the vets and the Jounin simply waited for the old man to continue.

Sarutobi smiled again before saying "Will Neji Hyuga, Ten Ten, Rock Lee, Hinata Hyuga, Shikamaru Nara, Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha, Matto Hirzen and Heza Tano please step forward."

The four rooks and five vets stepped up to the desk and Sarutobi smiled at them before pulling out nine green flak jackets before saying "Congratulations you nine on obtaining Chunnin Rank."

The nine former Gennin's eyes widened as they put on their flak jackets before stepping back to their teams and senseis. Their teammates and teachers each congratulated them and they took it in as graciously as they could.

Naruto smiled at their expressions before he heard "Will Naruto Uzumaki please step forward."

Naruto stepped up to the desk and Sarutobi got an even bigger smile as he proudly said "Naruto Uzumaki, due to your actions, the village has been defended with little to no casualties. Due to this and other reasons, me and the promotions council are proud to award you the rank of Elite Chunnin. Congratulations, you have more than earned it."

Sarutobi pulled out another flak jacket that was similar to the other jackets except for one key difference. This jacket had a black stripe going horizontally across the shoulders that clearly marked Naruto as an elite. Naruto's smile threatened to split his face if it got any bigger while he put the jacked on before stepping back to stand next to Matto and Heza.

The two both grinned and slapped his back while congratulating him while Sakura, Sasuke, and Hinata both gave smiles of their own.

Sarutobi smiled at them all as he said "Congratulations to the ten of you. You have all earned your new rank and I look forward to seeing how high you all shall rise. The same goes for the rest of you. I am sure in six months' time, we shall have even more Chunnin with bright futures ahead of them. Dismissed."

As the last of the group closed the door behind them, Sarutobi seemingly spoke to open air.

"So what do you think?"

Jirairya's voice came from the window from where he had been hiding by on the outside of the tower.

"I think your right. Naruto has the best chance at helping in the next mission. But I think we should wait till tomorrow and let them celebrate for now."

Sarutobi nodded and said "Agreed."

Back with the rather large group that had just left, the senseis decided to take everyone to the Akimichi Barbeque restaurant and treat everyone to the all you can eat. Chouji of course was ecstatic which made the Jounin realize they shouldn't have said all you can eat. Fortunately though, Naruto offered to chip in which had the four on their knees profusely thanking him while the rest just laughed.

Scene Change: Next Morning Outside Of The Hokage's Office

Naruto had been seeing the Sand trio off as the Sand forces were leaving today to head back to their village when a Chunnin had approached him and said that the Hokage wished to speak with him.

Raising an eyebrow before thanking the Chunnin, Naruto then took to the roofs at a fast speed and landed at the tower within a couple of minutes. Walking in, he passed a number of workers who would nod towards him when they saw the black horizontal stripe on his jacket's shoulders which he returned. As he came up to the Hokages office, he took a deep breath before knocking on the door.

Entering when called, he stepped in to find Jiraiya leaning against the window and Sarutobi leaning back in his chair with his pipe in his mouth.

When Sarutobi saw Naruto enter, he smiled and said "Ah, Naruto. Thank you for coming so soon. Please, have a seat."

Naruto nodded and said "So what's this about old man?"

Sarutobi sighed and said "Things are changing around here Naruto, and I'm afraid I am becoming too old to keep up with them. It is time we found my successor."

Naruto frowned and said "I take it when you say found you mean that you already know who you want but not where this person is?"

Sarutobi smiled and said "Sharp as ever. Yes Naruto, I know who I want, but unfortunately this person hasn't been in the village for a long time. I was hoping you would go with Jiraiya and help him find and then bring this person back."

Naruto nodded and said "Of course. I would be honored to. If I may ask, who are we looking for?"

This time it was Jiraiya who spoke up.

"My old teammate Tsunade."


	30. Heading On OutAkatuski Appears

Heading On Out/Akatsuki Makes An Appearance

Author's Notes: Hey guys, before we get started, I have a quick question. I had an idea where Naruto connected two rasengans together with a chakra string and threw them like a bola when he fought with Kabuto. Any of you guys think that would be a good thing to put in? Also, I know that I have got the order slightly mixed up in this chapter but personally I don't care. Now then, lets get started.

Hidden Leaf Village Main Gate

It was two hours since Naruto learned who he and his godfather were going to track down. Jiraiya had given him some time to grab whatever gear he felt he would need and tell his friends that he would be gone for a while.

Jiraiya was currently leaning against one of the gates. He spotted his godson coming up with Matto, Heza, and Hinata following. As Jiraiya had requested at the meeting, Naruto currently had his vest sealed and would keep it sealed for the rest of the trip in order to not draw attention to the two toad summoners.

Pushing himself up from his leaning position, Jiraiya walked over to the group. Nodding to the three Chunnin, he then turned to Naruto and said "Got everything?"

Naruto nodded and said "Yeah. Just give me second." Jiraiya nodded and Naruto turned around and said "Now are you guys sure you can do it?"

Matto got a wicked grin while the two female Chunnin merely smiled before the three nodded. Naruto just smiled as well before giving Hinata a quick kiss.

"All right guys, good luck. Take care of yourselves and don't get caught. I'll be back as soon as I can."

Jiraiya raised an eyebrow at this but waited until they were outside the gate before turning his head to his current traveling companion and asked "What was that about?"

Naruto shrugged and said "I haven't been able to do any pranks for a while now. I had planned on doing a bunch after the exams. However, since we're going to be gone for around a month, I told Matto what I had planned and he agreed to do them."

Jiraiya just looked at him oddly before shaking his head and chuckling to himself. After he was done he said "You and your antics kid. Anyway, I've been thinking and I believe that we can kill two birds with one stone on this trip."

Naruto cocked his eyebrow and said "How so?"

Jiraiya grinned and said "Well, you've signed the toad contract and shown that you can work with them real well. I think it's time you inherited another thing of your father's. How would you like to learn the rasengan?"

Naruto's eyes widened as a grin appeared on his face as he asked "How soon can we start?"

He had a reason to be excited since besides hirashine(sp), the rasengan was the most famous technique that the fourth had made.

Jiraiya laughed before saying "As eager as always. There is a carnival town that we're going to be stopping at to start gathering Intel about a day or two out at civilian caravan speed. We'll get the needed teaching tools there."

Naruto nodded and the two went from walking at a leisurely pace to a fast run towards their first destination.

Scene Change: Four Hours Later: Carnival Town

Naruto looked down at the town from on top of the cliff face that surrounded the entire town. Stairs at even intervals around the cliff led down to the town which was in a ten story pit. On the other side of the cliff, there was what looked like a lift crane heading down that looked like it was used for bringing large crates down.

Naruto frowned as he looked down before turning to Jiraiya and said "Why would they have a carnival here? If there was a flash flood, there's no way to get everyone out fast enough."

Jiraiya nodded and said "That's true. However, they have never had that problem before and most likely never will. You have to remember that the closest river is downhill from here."

Naruto got an "oh" look on his face before looking at the carnival that was a year round event.

"So we're going to gather info on your teammate here?"

Jiraiya nodded and said "That's right. These places always have at least one type of gambling. It's a good bet that Tsunade passed through here. Hopefully it was recently."

Naruto nodded since it made sense. Jiraiya had told him about his former teammates sometimes when he would be in the village. He had told Naruto more about his blond teammate as they ran to the town.

Jiraiya turned and began heading down the closest staircase. Naruto quickly followed and soon the two were walking through the streets.

Naruto's senses were constantly being bombarded by the environment as people at stands were constantly trying to get people's attention and to do the various games while others advertised different foods and beverages. Naruto did his best but couldn't help but look around in wonder.

Seeing this, Jiraiya chuckled and said "First time at the carnival kid?" Seeing Naruto nod, he said "Why don't we split up then? There is a gambling hall in the center of the town. Why don't we meet up there in an hour? Just make sure you don't blow all your money here."

Naruto nodded before taking off causing Jiraiya to chuckle again while shaking his head.

One hour later, Naruto walked up to the gambling hall that he and Jiraiya had agreed to meet at. He stopped just past the doorway before looking around and found his godfather talking to a man near the back.

However, before he took more than a step towards the two, he was bumped into from behind. He turned around to see a man in a suit with what looked like coffee running down his suit from a busted cup in his hand.

The man growled at Naruto and said "Hey brat! You just ruined by thousand dollar suit! What are you going to do to make it up to me?"

Naruto frowned and said "It's not my fault that you didn't watch where you were going or don't have enough sense to not wear an expensive suit where it could get ruined like that."

The man got even angrier and said "Why you."

He drew back his fist, but before he could throw a punch, Jiraiya appeared and said "Come now, friend. I'm sure we can work things out."

The man scowled and said "Get lost you old geezer. This is between me and the brat."

Jirairya's eyes narrowed and he said "Naruto, I want you to pay attention. I'm about to show you the rasengan."

As soon as he said this, a sphere of spinning chakra appeared in the older toad summoner's hands before he thrust the sphere into the other man's stomach.

The man let out an "umph" before shooting off of the sphere in a pinwheel motion before crashing into a balloon stand on the other side of the street.

Naruto rose an eyebrow before grinning and said "Dang, that was cool."

Jiraiya chuckled before walking out to the man who was looking at him with fear. As he got closer, the man said "You're Jiraiya of the Sannin! Forgive me, I didn't know! Is there anything I can do to make it up?"

Jiraiya rubbed his chin in a thoughtful motion before saying "Hmm, well if you give me whatever money you have on you I think we can call it even."

Naruto was walking towards them and sweat dropped when he heard this but to his surprise, the man pulled out his wallet and handed it to Jiraiya before taking off.

Shaking his head, Jiraiya turned to the owner of the balloon stand and waved the wallet before he said "Hey, can I have all of your water balloons as well as any rubber balls and empty balloons as well."

The man just nodded before giving Jiraiya what he asked for while Naruto stepped up to him and asked "What are the balloons for?"

Jiraiya chuckled and said "You'll see. Come on, let's go find somewhere more private."

Naruto nodded and followed Jiraiya who now had a large bag in one of his hands as they exited the pit and found a small tree grove on the side opposite of the staircase they had entered.

Once there, Jiraiya looked around before digging around the bag for a couple of water balloons. Turning to Naruto he said "Here, catch."

Naruto caught the tossed water balloon before Jiraiya raised the water balloon in his right hand and said "There are three steps to learning the rasengan. This is the first step. Using the water as a medium, you have to spin your chakra around in order to make the balloon burst like this."

After he said that, Jiraiya's balloon started getting bumps all over its surface for a couple of seconds before bursting apart into little pieces.

Jiraiya shook his hand out as he said "Now you try."

Naruto nodded and started spinning his chakra. However, unlike Jiraiya's balloon, Naruto's just shifted around. He kept it up about ten seconds but stopped when it became clear he wasn't getting anywhere.

Naruto frowned slightly before cocking his head and remembering what he had seen of the technique so far. He remembered how the completed technique looked like a typhoon that was three dimensional instead of two when Jiraiya used it in the gambling hall. He then remembered how Jiraiya's water balloon had bulges all over it's surface while Naruto's simply bulged in the middle.

'The complete form looked like a bunch of streams of chakra heading to the center. And Pervy Sage's balloon had all those bulges while mine only held one. I must need to add more rotations to it.

Jiraiya watched him and smirked as his godson began figuring out what he had to do. He wasn't disappointed when less than a minute later, the water balloon began bulging again. Right after the first bulge appeared, a second joined it going vertically before another bulge formed. Within three seconds of starting, the entire balloon was bulging outwards before it burst into little pieces flinging water everywhere.

Jiraiya's smirk turned into a proud smile as he said "Good job kid. It took your father three years to create that technique and me three months to learn it. And you got the first part right in only two tries."

He then got a thoughtful look and looked at all of the water balloons that were still in the bag before saying "Bet you could put the rest to good use when we get back to the village."

Naruto chuckled before Jiraiya tossed him a rubber ball. Grinning, Jiraiya said "Ok kid, you got the first stage down pretty quick, but this next step is a little harder. The first stage was rotation. The second stage is power. Using the first stage, you have to add power to the ball and make it burst. This step is harder because you don't have any water to help and must use just your chakra. Like this."

Once he finished speaking, Jiraiya picked up another rubber ball and a second later, the ball shredded itself from the inside.

Naruto nodded before looking at the ball. He started rotating his chakra getting it to the point where the water balloon had popped. He then started adding more and more power to it before a hole suddenly appeared and the ball deflated.

Naruto frowned again before he looked up as Jiraiya gave him a word of advice.

"Try focusing all of your chakra around a single point. Also, try to pump as much power in it as you can. Here, this should help."

Naruto continued to frown in thought as Jiraiya took out a brush and small vial of sealing ink before he painted a small dot on the blonde's hand.

When Jiraiya stepped back, Naruto grabbed another rubber ball before walking back to his spot and began spinning his chakra.

Biting his lip in concentration, Naruto got the rotations going before he suddenly pumped the ball with so much power that the ball exploded and sent Naruto flying.

He flipped himself so he could land on his feet and placed his left hand on the ground and slid fifteen feet away. His eyes widened as he slid and when he stopped he said "Holy Shit!" His right hand was actually smoking from how much chakra he had poured into the technique.

Jiraiya laughed at this and said "I think you might have overdid it there a little kid! Still, it'll be one heck of an attack if you put that much power into it when you master it."

Naruto with still wide eyes came up and said "Yeah no kidding. If an incomplete rasengan at that power sent the user that far away, I'd hate to see what a complete rasengan will do to my enemy if I add that kind of power to it. I think I should probably use a little less until I master it though. If I keep using that kind of power, I'll eventually wind up back in the village."

Jiraiya laughed even harder at that and ruffled his godsons' hair before saying with a big grin "True kid, but at least now we can go ahead and start heading to the next town since the third stage can be completed on the move. And I gotta say. You are doing one hell of a job so far."

Naruto nodded and Jiraiya dug in the bag before pulling out all of the empty balloons before filling one with air and tying it off.

Placing the balloon in his right hand, Jiraiya said "All right kid, this is the final stage, concentration."

The balloon shifted a little at first but then nothing happened. Naruto frowned before saying "I don't get it."

Jiraiya lifted up his left hand and a complete rasengan began spinning around in his hand. Jiraiya watched as Naruto's eyes widened as he suddenly realized what he had to do.

Grinning he continued "This is the final stage of the rasengan. You have to take the first two stages and compress it down into a stable sphere. This is the final and hardest stage to learn. You have to make it so that you can make the rasengan inside the balloon without popping it."

Naruto frowned and said "Why contain it? It seems pretty powerful with just the first two stages."

Jiraiya nodded and placed the balloon down and dropped the rasengan in his hand before he said "Good question. Let me demonstrate something and you'll find out why."

Jiraiya stepped up to a tree and began a second stage rasengan before saying "Here is a rasengan where you only combine the first and second stage."

He shoved the incomplete rasengan into the tree leaving a rough hole with spirals coming out. Naruto's eyes widened before Jiraiya formed another rasengan in his hand, this time a complete one.

"And this is what happens when you combine all three stages." And with that, he shoved the ball against the tree as wood chips began flying as it grinded into the tree going all the way through leaving a smooth hole.

Naruto whistled as the tree began toppling over. Jiraiya grinned and said "The third stage focuses the attack into a smaller area and gives it even more power. This allows you to either grind it into your opponent or push it into your opponent and release it all at once. Now then seal the bag and lets go. Like I said, you can do this last stage moving."

Naruto nodded and sealed up the bag before picking up the rest of the empty balloons and putting them in one of his pockets. After that the two headed to the next town while Naruto began trying to learn how to compress the rasengan.

Scene Change: Hotel In A Town Between Tanzaku Town and Carnival Town

It was close to dusk as the two travelers stopped at a town between their next destination and the carnival town the two had left. The two were headed toward a gambling town that Jiraiya believed was the most likely spot and which Intel that he gathered at the carnival town had loosely agreed with.

Turning to his godson, Jiraiya said "All right kid, We'll stop here for the night. I think it would also be a good idea to spend tomorrow here as well since there's a good chance Tsunade passed through here and some of the locals may have a better idea of where exactly she went. At the very least it will confirm what we already believe."

Naruto nodded and the two went to find an inn. Unfortunately, neither of them suspected that they were not the only trackers in the area.

The next day, Naruto was sitting in the hotel room he and Jiraiya had rented while he waited for Jiraiya to finish his intelligence gathering.

'Either that or his woman chasing. Super Pervert my foot, more like Mega Pervert.' Naruto thought with a smirk as he kept reading the scroll he had in his lap while he sat on his bed.

He had decided to take a break from trying to master the rasengan until they were back on the road since he didn't want to potentially destroy anything in the room and he wanted to be somewhere Jiraiya could find him easily if he found anything earlier than expected.

So he was currently reading one of the scrolls on advanced sealing that he had brought with him to keep him busy during times like these.

All of a sudden, Naruto's advance chakra sense picked up two high level chakra profiles that he did not recognize enter the hallway that his room was attached to. Frowning, Naruto concentrated and his eyes widened as he realized the two chakra levels were around Jiraiya's level.

Naruto sealed his scroll and disengaged his weights. If those two presences were trouble, he was going to have to hightail it out of there and find Jiraiya quick. He had sparred with his godfather before, and every time he had, he managed to get his butt kicked.

Steeling his nerves, he clamped down on his chakra signature as much as possible before creating a soundless shadow clone who brought it's own presence back to normal levels. Naruto then went over to the wall and fazed through it while jumping to the roof of the building beside the hotel.

Right after he fazed through, the two presences reached the hotel room door and one of the people outside knocked on it.

Steeling his nerves, the clone walked up to the door and when he saw who it was, both he and the original who was watching via mental link five blocks away both thought the same thing.

'Oh Shit.'

Standing in the doorway was S-class missing nin Itachi Uchiha. And right behind him was S-class missing nin Kisame Hoshigaki. Both were wearing black cloaks with red clouds on them and both of their headbands were scratched showing that they had both abandoned their village.

Naruto's clone kept a calm look on his face as he looked at the two while on the inside he prepared himself for what he was about to do.

Itachi simply looked at him as his partner said "This is the nine tail's host huh? Who would have thought such a brat could have such a destructive beast in him."

Itachi's face never lost its emotionless stare as he said "Regardless, of what you think Kisame, he does hold the nine tails. Now then Naruto, we would like for you to come with us."

The clone just gave them a deadpanned look before saying "Sorry, but mom told me not to go with strangers."

Right after he said that, he closed the door and began backing up a little.

Back with the original, he was trying to do his best not to laugh so his position wasn't given away while his father, who had no such limit, was rolling around in his cage laughing his butt off.

Back on the other side of the door, Kisame blinked before he said "Did that kid just slam the door in our faces?"

Itachi nodded and said "I believe so." before kicking the door in.

The two had just enough time to see the clone grin before it launched itself at the two with a cry of "BANZAI!"

Right after he said that, the building was suddenly rocked by an explosion as the original got ready for one hell of a fight.

Still crouching near the edge of the roof, he felt the air current behind him alter itself as two people appeared behind him before he heard one of them speak to him.

"While I will admit it was impressive that you could create an exploding shadow clone and that it was a good strategy to use it like that, did you honestly expect that to work…Naruto?"

Sighing Naruto said "Truthfully? Not really after I saw who was there."

Standing up and then turning around to face the two, he continued "But it was worth a shot anyways."

Before the two missing nin could say anything to that, Naruto removed his mental barriers on his chakra and sent it straight up like a beacon into the sky that could be seen from everywhere in the town they were in. The two missing nin looked on passively as the beacon shone for a full ten seconds before Naruto pulled it all back into himself.

Kisame had a grin as this was going on which only got bigger as Naruto put his mental barriers back in place. Turning slightly to Itachi he said "You know Itachi, I like this kid."

Itachi slightly frowned and said "I am sure that beacon was to draw Jiraiya's attention Naruto. However, he is too far away even if he did see it to get here in time. You should have ran as soon as you recognized us."

Naruto smirked as he got into the basic fox style Taijustu stance and said "True, but something tells me the that even if I did run, you guys would catch up. And I would rather fight now then waste chakra running and then have to fight you anyway."

Kisame chuckled and said "Ok, now I REALLY like this kid. It's too bad we're going to have to kill him once we're done with him. He'd make a good addition to our little group."

Naruto frowned as a more familiar chakra signature came at him at high speeds before he heard "I'm afraid I can't allow you to do that."

The two missing nins' eyebrows rose as Sasuke hopped over from one of the roofs to stand next to Naruto. Not taking his eyes off of the two in front of him, Naruto looked out of the corner of his left eye at the younger Uchiha.

Frowning even more he asked "Sasuke, what are you doing here?"

Sasuke frowned as well when he laid eyes on his older brother but replied anyway.

"These two were seen in the village and attacked Kakashi and the other team Jounin when they were confronted. Itachi here supposedly put Kakashi into a coma when he used a Sharingan technique."

Naruto sighed before saying "Damn. One more reason to find that damn teammate of Pervy Sage's. All right Sasuke, listen and listen well. I'm trying to delay this fight as much as I can till my godfather comes but in the mean time do your best to stay out of range of these two if we do fight. You most likely know better than me what your brother can do and his partner is probably just as bad."

Sasuke frowned before nodding. He then asked "What do they want with you anyway?"

Naruto sighed and said "You know how we're taught in the academy that the Kyubi was killed by the Fourth?"

Sasuke nodded and said "Yeah, so?"

Naruto sighed again and said "They lied. The Kyubi couldn't be killed so the Fourth did the next best thing and sealed him away inside a baby who just had his umbilical cord cut. The method used cost the Fourth his life in exchange. The third then made it an S-class secret that if any of the older generation told the new what had truly happened that day, they would be punished with death."

Sasuke frowned at Naruto's words before his eyes widened as he remembered words that Naruto had told him and Sakura when they were heading to the first part of the Chunnin Exams.

"You mean-"

Naruto nodded and said "That's right. I'm what they call a jinchuriki, or "power of human sacrifice." We're demon carriers that were originally created in order to be army killers during the Shinobi Wars. Though when the Kyubi went on a rampage all those years ago, the Fourth was only concerned with stopping it. Unfortunately, the Kyubi's chakra is so strong that if anyone but a newborn was used, it would have killed that person and the Kyubi would have been free again."

"But why a newborn?"

"Only a newborn whose chakra coils hadn't developed yet could handle the strain and then incorporate the demon's chakra."

Sasuke frowned as he heard all this but on the inside he was thinking about how everything now made sense to him. He had always wondered about that time back when the new Team 7 was first formed and he saw his blond teammate's eyes flash crimson for a second.

Itachi and Kisame had stayed where they were as this was going on but once Naruto was done speaking, Kisame took a step closer and put his sword on his shoulder before saying "That's all very informative and all, but I'm afraid we have a job to do. Itachi, leave these two to me."

Sasuke was about to say something when Naruto smirked and said "Then I guess you guys are about to get fired."

Right after he said that, Naruto vanished before a sharp clang rang out as Naruto appeared with both swords out and against Kisame's sword.

The two had identical smirks as Naruto rolled and sliced his toad sword in his left hand towards Kisame's feet in hope of cutting them off before Kisame hopped up and brought his blade down at the same time. Naruto rolled back to avoid the blade before launching himself at the shark like nin ready to behead the man. Kisame jerked his head back as he brought his sword up trying to cut Naruto in half. Naruto twisted his body while using a little bit of wind manipulation to dodge the sword coming at him before swinging his wind coated fox blade at Kisame. Kisame jerked his head to the left as the extended blade cut a small line into his cheek.

Seeing the blood, Naruto said "I draw first blood."

Kisame smirked as he touched the cut and looked at the blood on his fingers before saying "So it seems, but can you keep it up?"

Naruto smirked and said "Let's see."

Right after he said that, the two lunged at each other again and met with Kisame's sword doing it's best to push Naruto's against his skin before Naruto shifted his swords and Kisame's slammed into the roof throwing up a cloud of dust as Naruto jumped to the side before side stepping once to come in with his fox blade high and his toad blade low. Kisame quickly brought his blade to intercept the two and caught the blades before another Naruto suddenly appeared from the dust cloud and kicked Kisame's chin with a flying roundhouse kick.

Kisame went with the kick and landed back next to his partner as he rubbed his chin. All the while he was still grinning. "Now that's a warm up! Why don't we get really started now?"

Other than Naruto's lips twitching, the blond gave no reply as he settled into an advanced two sword form. He may have known that he couldn't possibly beat Kisame in the end, but that didn't mean he couldn't have some fun from fighting such a strong opponent. Naruto hadn't known Hayate that well and so had no one to push himself against when it came to Kinjustu besides the toads and foxes when he visited them.

The clone landed before dispelling itself in a poof of smoke. Sasuke was staring in awe at the fight while Itachi simply looked on.

'That was a warm up?' Sasuke thought while watching the two get ready to go at it again.

Just as Naruto and Kisame were about to get serious though, Itachi spoke up. As he did, he stepped forward and drew an Anbu ninjato from a back sheath.

"Kisame, we do not have time for this. Jiraiya well be here any minute. Stand down."

Kisame frowned and said "Ah, just when it was getting fun." He stepped back though as Naruto got ready for an even tougher fight.

All of a sudden, Itachi disappeared from Naruto's sight and only instinct saved him as he brought his toad sword up to block Itachi's strike that would have taken his arm off. Blue eyes looked right below Sharingan as Itachi twisted the blade out of Naruto's hands before disappearing again. Naruto quickly flipped his fox blade into a reverse grip as he rolled forward to avoid a sweep designed to take his head off. Halfway through the roll, Naruto put his hand out and used it to flip himself and turn as he coated his blade in wind chakra before sending blades of wind towards the older Uchiha.

To his surprise though, Itachi sliced straight through the blades causing them to create gouges in the roof on either side of him.

Naruto's eyes widened even further as he suddenly heard the sounds of birds chirping. He saw Sasuke with a Chidori in his left hand while he rushed his brother.

'So Kakashi-sensei did teach him that jutsu.' Naruto thought before what he was seeing finally caught up to his brain.

"Sasuke, no!"

Too late.

As soon as Sasuke was in range, Itachi spun around and caught the attack on his blade which had lightning coursing through it to counter the Chidori.

Sasuke and Naruto's eyes widened as Itachi said "Foolish little brother. You still do not have enough hate."

Right after he said that, his eyes switched to the Mangekyo Sharingan. Right after, he looked Sasuke in the eye who immediately screamed before slumping down unconscious.

Kisame chuckled and said "Wow that's harsh Itachi. Using your eyes on your own brother. Better be careful though, that's twice in one day now."

Naruto barely heard this as he rushed Itachi.

"Sasuke!"

Itachi turned and caught Naruto's fox blade before forcing that out of his hands as well. Naruto's eyes widened at the new Sharingan he saw, but before he could pull back, Itachi grabbed his shirt and brought him to eye level before saying "Tsukuyomi!"

Naruto suddenly found himself in a world of inverted colors with a red moon in the sky and him tied to a cross.

Itachi was standing right in front of him and said "This is your mind Naruto. In here, I make all the rules. 72 hours in here will go by in a second out there. Now then, what shall I do to you? Should I continually stab you like I did to Kakashi? Or maybe show you an event over and over again like I did to Sasuke? Hmm, so many choices."

Even though he was tied to the cross, Naruto smirked before saying "Aren't you forgetting something Itachi?"

Itachi raised his head to look at the blond fully and asked "And what Naruto, may I be forgetting?"

Naruto's smirk turned into an evil grin as a figure appeared behind Itachi.

"This is my mind. And here-"

A blood red Katana came out of Itachi's chest as Kyubi in human form finished his son's sentence without missing a beat **"We're gods."**

Itachi burst into crows as Naruto ripped his arms off of the cross and dropped down next to his father. Forming his own Katana out of thin air, this one ocean blue, Naruto smirked again as Itachi reformed in front of the two.

Itachi narrowed his eyes as he saw Kyubi and asked "Who are you?"

Naruto laughed and said "You know Itachi, for someone looking for the Kyubi, you sure don't know what you're looking for."

Itachi's eyes narrowed even further and he said "This is the Kyubi? Interesting."

Kyubi smirked and said **"As much as I'd love to chat Uchiha, me and Naruto here really don't like people coming here, so I'm afraid we're going to have to show you out."**

As soon as he finished speaking, father and son launched themselves at Itachi who barely had time to form two ninjatos to block. Grinning at Itachi while their Katanas were against his Ninjatos, the two then broke off before launching themselves back at him at even faster speeds that Itachi could not keep up with.

Just as the blades were about to take his head off, Itachi decided that it would be a good idea to get out of there.

Back outside, Itachi gasped in a breath as he dropped Naruto who landed and then jumped away from him.

Kisame looked confused, but before he could ask his partner anything, A bunch of toads with swords appeared along with Jiraiya.

Naruto saw them and smirked before saying "What took you so long Pervy Sage?"

Jiraiya simply rubbed the back of his head and said "Well you know…"

"Save it."

Jiraiya immediately began crying anime tears as the toads chuckled.

Itachi looked at the reinforcements and calmly said "Kisame, we're leaving."

The two missing nins took off and the toads made to follow before black fire suddenly came from one of Itachi's eyes and prevented them from moving forward.

Jiraiya frowned as he looked at the fire before sealing it away inside a scroll. Naruto meanwhile went and grabbed both of his swords and resealed them.

This was the scene that Gai came upon when he found them. After informing them about what happened at the village, Gai took off back to the village with Sasuke.

As soon as he was gone, Naruto turned to his godfather and said "Mind telling me why I had two S-class nins after me? They said they were after Kyubi but what the heck would they use him for?"

Jiraiya sighed and said "Their from a group called Akatsuki…"

Scene Change: Two Weeks Later: Tanzaku Town

In a casino inside the gambling town called Tazuna, a slot machine suddenly lit up on the top as the blond gambler sitting in front of it suddenly hit the jackpot. The brown haired woman standing beside her blond companion suddenly grew wide eyed as she cheered.

"All right Tsunade, you won!"

The blond woman sitting down frowned as she thought 'I never get the jackpot. What's going on? I've got a bad feeling about this.'

In the brown haired woman's arms, a pig got a confused look and oinked in worry.

Scene Change: Forest Outside Of Tazuna Town

Orochimaru and Kabuto were currently walking through the forest.

Kabuto adjusted his glasses before asking "Are you sure she will do it?"

Orochimaru smiled and said "She will do it. After all, I have something that will guarantee her cooperation even if she doesn't want to."

Scene Change: Tanzaku Town: One Hour Later

Tsunade and her companion was currently walking through town with her companion carrying a large bag with money in it.

Tsunade had a frown but her companion seemed extremely happy as she said "I can't believe how much we won in there. Now we can pay off some of our debts."

Tsunade frowned even more before saying "Shizune, we're leaving."

The now introduced Shizune frowned before saying "But why? You were doing so well."

Tsunade looked at here but kept walking.

"I've got a bad feeling."

Shizune kept frowning as she said "But Tsunade, this town is famous for its castle. Couldn't we at least make a quick trip to see it before we leave?"

Tsunade sighed and said "Fine, but no more than thirty minutes there. I want to get out of here as soon as possible."

Scene Change: Tanzaku Castle

Tsunade and Shizune were currently between two walls of the outside grounds of the castle while Shizune looked at the castle in amazement.

Turning to Tsunade with a smile, she said "Isn't this amazing Tsunade?"

Tsunade frowned and said "Yeah, yeah. Now can we please get going?"

Shizune frowned and said "But we just got here."

But before Tsunade could say anything, the ground rumbled before a large snake suddenly burst through the castle shocking the two women. As the castle began collapsing, the two noticed two people standing on the snake's head. One had dark hair and yellow eyes while the other had silver hair and glasses.

Orochimaru grinned and said "I finally found you."

The snake disappeared in a poof of smoke and the two sound nin landed in front of the two women.

Tsunade frowned and said "Orochimaru. What are you doing here?"

Orochimaru chuckled and said "I'm afraid I require your assistance Tsunade. You see, I recently got into a fight and I need your expertise now."

Tsunade looked at her teammate and noticed his blackened arms. Raising an eyebrow she said "Those are no normal burns on your arms Orochimaru. Where did you get them?"

A flicker of anger crossed Orochimaru's face for a second before he smiled again and said "Oh I had a run in with sensei and the Kyubi jinchuriki earlier this month. I had planned on killing the old fool and destroying the village but it seems that the brat had other ideas."

Tsunade frowned at this and bit her lip as she said "And why might I ask should I heal your arms? Even if I no longer care for that hell hole of a village, you have done some pretty awful things with those arms."

Orochimaru's smile got a sick look to it as he said "Because I can return to you the most precious things that you lost. Your brother and fiancé."

Shizune gasped as Tsunade frowned.

Time Skip: One Hour Later

Naruto and Jiraiya appeared on the top of a high hill ending in a cliff as they looked at the town in front of them that was about a mile in front of them.

Jiraiya shook his head as he said "Tanzaku Town. The biggest gambling town in the Land of Fire. You know, now that I think about it, we really should have came here first."

Naruto frowned and said "Uh, Pervy Sage? We got a problem."

Jiraiya frowned at the nickname but asked "And what that might be?"

"Tanzaku town was supposed to have a castle right?"

"Yeah, so?"

"So, where's the castle?"

Jiraiya's eyes widened as he looked at where the castle was supposed to be. All the two travelers saw was an empty space in the air where it should have been.

Jiraiya frowned as Naruto said "I've got a bad feeling about this."

Jiraiya nodded and said "So do I. Come on, lets check it out. Something tells me Tsunade has something to do with this."

Naruto nodded as the two raced off to the area that held what was once a proud castle.

Twenty minutes later, the two reached the rubble and Naruto whistled at all of the destruction.

Looking around, he said "Man, I do NOT want to fight whoever did this."

Jiraiya nodded, but before he could reply, he saw Naruto's eyes widened as he breathed in through his nose.

Concerned, he asked "What is it? What do you smell?"

Naruto started scowling as he said "Two women with a pig as well as two males who smell strongly of snakes and one big ass snake as well."

Jiraiya scowled as well as the information sunk in.

"Damn it, looks like we weren't the only ones looking for her. Did they leave together?"

Naruto took a few more breathes as walked around a little before shaking his head.

"No, as far as I can tell, the two women and pig went to the town while the two men took off in a different direction. The snake seems to have just disappeared although that makes sense if it was a summon."

Jiraiya frowned before asking "Can you track her?"

Naruto nodded and said "Follow me." before heading off to the town.


	31. Bets Made And Won

Bets Made And Won

Downtown Bar In Tanzaku Town

Jiraiya had been following Naruto as he followed the scents he had picked up back at the remains of the castle. They had walked all the way to the downtown region and were currently in front of a bar.

Jiraiya turned to Naruto and said "You sure she's in there?"

Naruto closed his eyes and took a deep breath through his eyes before nodding and opening his eyes again.

"Yeah, I can smell her and her companion in there. And I can smell that pig too. It's maddening really because I keep thinking pork chops or bacon and now I'm starving."

A loud growl came from his stomach agreeing with the blond and Jiraiya laughed before the two headed inside.

Once inside, Jiraiya looked around before spotting their target and said "Tsunade! What a coincidence of seeing you here!"

Jiraiya headed towards the two women while Naruto took one look at the pig and decided to grab something quick before he ate the new Hokage's pet. After grabbing a quick appetizer from the bar, he walked over just in time to hear Jiraiya ask why the two couldn't just wind up running into each other.

"I guess it's just a day of reunions then." Tsunade said before pulling out a deck of cards and after shuffling them passed a hand to Jiraiya before dealing herself one as well.

"You mean Orochimaru right?" Jiraiya said as he placed down two cards and drew two more.

Naruto noticed the other blonde's companion slightly jerk and Tsunade's eyes slightly widen before she said "How do you know that?"

Jiraiya jerked his thumb over to Naruto who had just finished eating the chips he had got at the bar and said "Naruto here has a pretty good nose. He picked up on an extremely strong scent of snake in the area."

Tsunade frowned as she looked at Naruto who simply glanced at her when he felt her gaze before looking out around the bar refusing to look anywhere near where Shizune and their pet pig was.

Tsunade rose an eyebrow at this and said "You gotta problem with Shizune and Ton Ton brat?"

Naruto kept looking around as he said "If you were smelling pig for more than an hour constantly thinking of bacon and pork chops, and then found said pig only for it to be a pet of one of the legendary three, how do you think you would act?"

Shizune and Tsunade just stared at him while Ton Ton just oinked in confusion. Jiraiya chuckled and said "Told you he had a good nose."

Tsunade and Shizune shook themselves before Tsunade turned to Jiraiya and said "All right Jiraiya, come clean. What are you doing here? I doubt you would have someone who is obviously a tracker nin with you and just conveniently run into me."

Naruto glanced back over at Tsunade and said "Rapid response/heavy assault actually."

Tsunade frowned before she turned back to Jiraiya and said "Still doesn't explain what he's doing here with you."

Jiraiya chuckled lightly and said "He's my student Tsunade. As for why I'm here," Jiraiya's face turned dead serious before he continued "Sarutobi-sensei has requested that you return to the village as the Godaime Hokage."

Tsunade had been taking a sip of her sake and spit it out as Jiraiya finished speaking.

Looking at Jiraiya like he was crazy, she said "Why the hell would I want to do that? That old man knows what I've lost in that hell hole. There is no way I would go back and ABSOLUTELY no way I would become Hokage. That's a fool's job!"

All of a sudden, the room dropped a good ten degrees and kept falling as Naruto looked at her with cold fury. Everyone started shivering as Naruto said in a cold voice "Lady Tsunade, you may be a member of the legendary three. But if you ever say that in my presence again, I WILL make you regret it."

All of a sudden, the temperature rose straight back to what it was before and the rest of the people in the bar who were all civilians were looking around trying to figure out what happened.

Tsunade just looked calmly at her fellow blond keeping a calm poker face while on the inside she had actually began mentally sweating. Smirking she said "I highly doubt that brat. What's it to you anyway?"

Naruto smirked and said "It matters to me because it's my dream to become Hokage. They gave their all to protect their home and when I join their ranks I'm going to do the same."

Jiraiya had a proud smile while Tsunade and Shizune looked shocked. Tsunade more so as words from those she knew in the past seemed to match word for word what the teen in front of her said.

But before she could say anything, Naruto turned to Jiraiya and said "We should just leave now. It's pretty obvious to me that she wants to keep running like the coward she is. I don't know what the old man thought was in her, but it looks like it wasn't there."

Tsunade began seeing red as Naruto began to leave.

"What did you say you brat?"

Naruto turned around and said "I said you are a coward. You lose your brother and fiancé and so you chose the coward's way of running and drowning yourself in alcohol and gambling trying to fool yourself that it takes away the pain. We both know that's not possible and you should just move on. You're now nothing but a former shell of yourself since you have done nothing but run for more than three decades. We don't need a Hokage who can't pull herself from her darkness."

Jiraiya had been constantly signaling to Naruto to stop but Naruto kept looking at Tsunade with a look that dared her to contradict the truth that he was saying.

Tsunade growled and said "All right brat, you're asking for it. Lets take this outside right now so I can wipe that look off your face."

Naruto shrugged and said "Fine."

As the two blondes left the bar, Jiraiya and Shizune followed with worried faces.

Once outside, Tsunade smirked and while holding up her right pointer finger said "This is all I need to defeat you."

Naruto cocked an eyebrow and said "I wouldn't bet on that granny."

Tsunade got a tick mark on her face before she grinned and said "Why not? Let's make a bet. If you can beat me, I'll say that being Hokage is not a fool's job and that you have a chance to become Hokage. If you lose, you have to give up your dream of becoming Hokage."

Naruto twitched before he got off a far off look for a few seconds like he was listening to something the others couldn't hear.

Naruto then nodded and said "Sure, but you might want to use more than one finger."

Tsunade snorted and said "That won't be necessary."

Jiraiya who was standing next to Shizune on the sidelines said "Uh, Tsunade, you may want to do what he said."

Tsunade snorted and said "And why would I do that? There's no way he can win even with that handicap."

Jiraiya didn't have time to answer as Naruto blurred before hitting Tsunade in the chin with a high roundhouse kick. Shizune's eyes widened as Tsunade was launched back and upwards before falling back to the ground ten feet away.

Jiraiya simply shook his head and said "I warned her."

Naruto smirked as he lowered his right foot and said "Sure you can still win with only a finger?"

Tsunade growled as she stood up, but before she could say anything else, Naruto disengaged his weights. Tsunade might have been a bit drunk, and she may have been a shell of herself, but he knew that the Sannin was still in there somewhere.

Tsunade roared before launching herself at Naruto trying to stab him with her finger. Naruto's smirk got bigger as he began using the snake style and began avoiding her.

Tsunade quickly got frustrated as Naruto kept dodging and growled out "Stay still brat!"

"Fine."

What happened next surprised even Jiraiya as Naruto stopped dodging and instead grabbed Tsunade's arm as she got close before turning and throwing her down the alley they were in.

As she got up, Naruto decided that things had gone far enough and began forming a second stage rasengan in his hand.

Tsunade's eyes widened as she saw the blue sphere of chakra in his hand. 'That's...'

Naruto grinned and rushed Tsunade who thought fast and slammed her finger down causing a mini canyon to form. However, Naruto was moving too fast and sidestepped the canyon and got right in her face with the rasengan an inch from her stomach before he stopped.

Smirking as he released the technique, he said "I win."

He then stepped back and walked back over to Jiraiya. Tsunade got over her shock and turned on Jiraiya.

"It was you who taught him that wasn't it? Why the hell would you teach him a technique he could never use?"

Jiraiya was about to say something when Naruto suddenly got a thought and said "I could too use it granny. Give me three days and I'll have it mastered."

Jiraiya looked at Naruto confused, but Naruto just shot him a look that said "trust me" so he just let things play out.

Tsunade laughed and said "Really? Well then, how about another bet? I'll give you a week to master that technique. If you lose I get all your money. But if you win, I'll come back to the village and become Hokage. I'll even throw in this necklace."

Shizune gasped as Tsunade pointed at the necklace that was hanging around her neck. Naruto cocked his head and said "Why would I want that?"

Jiraiya bopped him on his head and said "You moron, that necklace was the First Hokage's. It's the only one in the world and is worth a mountain of gold!"

Naruto's eyebrow rose and said "So that's the focusing crystal the first made huh? All right granny, you got a deal."

Tsunade and Shizune looked confused at how Naruto knew it was a focusing crystal but Tsunade snapped out of it and stepped up to shake Naruto's hand before the two women left with their pet pig.

As soon as Jiraiya was sure the two were out of earshot, he turned to Naruto and said "Why did you do that? You can already make a complete rasengan since last week. And for that matter, why did you use only second stage?"

Naruto looked up at him and said "The answer is simple. Orochimaru was in town remember? I doubt he came just for a little chat and some tea. I don't know about you but I want to try and find out what he said to your other teammate. As for using the second stage instead of third, I don't think the old man would appreciate me killing his successor if I accidentally hit her with that technique."

Jiraiya nodded and said "Good point. Come on, let's go find a hotel."

Naruto nodded and the two left the alley to find one.

Scene Change: Next Day Quarter Mile Outside Of Tanzaku Town

It was roughly eight o'clock and Naruto was looking around at all the craters he had created with his newest attack.

Frowning as he created another rasengan in his right hand he thought 'The rasengan is great and all as a finisher, but it's practically useless if my opponent can stay out of arm's reach. There's got to be a way to deliver it at a farther range.'

Naruto thought for a minute while still looking at the sphere in his hands before he suddenly had an idea.

'Hmm, you know, that just might work.'

One hour later, the area Naruto was in was even more destroyed while Naruto had a grin on his face.

Looking around he thought 'Ok, that solves the problem of them being just out of arm's reach. But it's only good for ten feet or so. I need a way to get it just a little bit farther. Too much farther though, and there's no point since the thing is so big even an academy student could dodge it if it came at them. Twenty to thirty feet is probably the best distance I can hope for, at extreme max. It's going to have to have an even faster speed though. Now how to do this?'

That night, as soon as Naruto came into the hotel room he and his godfather were sharing, he immediately walked over to his bed and fell into it face down.

Jiraiya, who was working on next book, raised an eyebrow and then smirked before saying "Don't tell me your tired already? It's only nine o'clock."

Naruto moved his head so that he was looking at Jiraiya and said "Well excuse me if I just spent all day improving dad's technique."

Jiraiya's eyebrow shot right back up before he said "Oh really, do tell."

Naruto's lips twitched and he said "Not till I show Tsunade."

Jiraiya pouted before going back to writing his precious book while Naruto went straight to sleep.

The next day, Naruto was back in private area he had found yesterday ready to get back to work.

Looking around at all of the destruction Naruto thought 'The main problem with the rasengan is it's speed of delivery. I have the distance down but it doesn't mean diddley divided by squat (One of my favorite sayings I made up. Lol) if a person is fast enough to avoid it. But how the heck am I going to speed the attack up? There's not much I can do if anything to increase the speed with what I've got to work with. There are a few things I could probably try but something's telling me that the modified rasengans will have to be a one time thing for each opponent I face. Well, might as well get started.'

As he thought this, he suddenly picked up a presence hiding behind a boulder. Recognizing the presence, Naruto simply shrugged and began working on the different ideas he had.

That night while Naruto was getting ready for bed, he sensed the same presence before the person knocked on his door. As he was opening the door he said "Can I help you with something Shizune?"

Shizune looked surprised that Naruto knew who it was even though the door was still mostly closed before he spoke but shook it off and said "Naruto, I need to talk to you."

Naruto simply nodded and went back into the room with Shizune following.

Time Skip: Evening Of Sixth Day Of Bet.

Naruto was once again in the private area he had found. The entire area was nothing but massive steaming craters.

However, unlike the first two days where Naruto had been trying to improve the rasengan, these craters that had accumulated throughout the rest of the week were from high powered justu that Naruto was working on that he knew but still needed to master. There wasn't a square inch of ground within 1,000 square feet that was untouched from Naruto's jutsu.

By his side, Shizune looked around in awe as she saw the damage the blonde had made. Throughout the entire day, explosions had been going off along with hurricane force winds and extreme lightning storms as Naruto went through his list of high class justu that he felt he didn't have enough control over yet.

Shizune had taken to watching Naruto train after the second day. Naruto had to have her swear not to tell Tsunade he had mastered the rasengan since he wanted to surprise her on the day of the bet. That and the fact it would give Jiraiya more time to gather information. He had told Naruto to get ready for anything while he gathered information and that was exactly what Naruto had been doing for the past five days.

Panting, Naruto grinned and said "Not bad huh Shizune?"

Shizune shook herself and said "Yeah."

Right as she said this though, Naruto promptly fainted. But before he could hit the ground, Shizune caught him and brought him back to the hotel she and Tsunade were staying at.

At the hotel, Tsunade was biting her thumb as she remembered the conversation she had just come from with her teammate. She looked up as Shizune came in with Naruto over her shoulder in the fireman's lift.

Tsunade rose an eyebrow and when Shizune saw it simply said "Chakra exhaustion."

Tsunade nodded at this and simply watched as Shizune placed Naruto down on one of the two beds in their room. Once he was laying down she asked "How close is he?"

Shizune looked up at her before looking back down and said "Now where would the fun be if you knew ahead of time Lady Tsunade?"

Tsunade's eyebrow shot up even higher than before since Shizune normally didn't speak like that but decided to drop it.

Shizune looked at Naruto for a few more seconds before turning towards her mentor and said "Lady Tsunade, I don't think you should meet with Orochimaru tomorrow."

Tsunade frowned and said "Shizune, we've talked about this already."

"But-"

She didn't get any further as Tsunade knocked her out with a punch to the stomach before leaving the room.

Time Skip: Next Morning

"une, wake up. Shizune! Come on now, WAKE UP!"

Shizune's eyes snapped open at Naruto's shout and saw him leaning over her.

Naruto smiled when he saw her awake and said "About time. I've been trying to wake you up for five minutes now."

Shizune looked confused and said "Naruto? What are you doing awake? I thought you would be out for days. Wait, that means-"

Before she could go into panic mode, Naruto held up a hand and said "I always recover quickly. But if you don't mind me asking, why did your teacher knock you out?"

Shizune frowned at how Naruto seemed to know what Tsunade did when he was unconscious before her eyes widened. Running to the window, she was about to leap out when a kunai landed right next to her.

Eyes wide, Shizune looked to her side and saw Jiraiya limping his way towards them. When Naruto went to the window and saw him, his own eyes widened and said "Dang Pervy Sage, what happened to you?"

Jiraiya grunted before saying "She slipped me something last night that really messed with my body and chakra control."

Shizune got some water and gave it to Jiraiya to help the drug cycle through his system quicker.

As Jiraiya was drinking the water, Naruto suddenly cocked his head as he sensed very faint chakra spikes at long range before he frowned and turned to Shizune and said "We need find her."

Shizune nodded before turning to Ton Ton.

"Ton Ton, We need you to find Lady Tsunade."

The pig oinked before taking off with the three ninja following.

Scene Change: Fields Outside Of Tanzaku Town

Tsunade was currently fighting Kabuto. Meaning she was trying to pound him into the dirt and he was doing his absolute best to not let her fists touch him.

However, as Kabuto pulled away from a punch, he suddenly smirked and pulled out a scalpel. Tsunade prepared to fight an opponent with a blade, but got confused when Kabuto cut himself instead.

Kabuto's smirk got nasty as he said "So I hear you have a fear of blood Lady Tsunade. Let's test that out shall we?"

With that, he got in close and sprayed the blood all over Tsunade. Tsunade's eyes widened and she dropped to her knees in a state of shock leaving her wide open.

Kabuto's smirk stayed on his face as he activated his chakra scalpels technique and rushed the Sannin to take her head off.

Before his right hand could cut her though, he saw a yellow blur before his hand hit another, this one coated in wind chakra.

Kabuto's eyes widened as his eyes followed the left hand that still had wind chakra rotating around it up the arm and into sapphire eyes that calmly looked at him as Naruto stood in front of Tsunade.

Naruto smirked and said "I'm afraid I can't allow you to harm Lady Tsunade anymore Kabuto. After all, I still need to bring her back to the Leaf Village. She's our next Hokage after all."

Naruto's little speech seemed to snap Tsunade out of her shock a little as she heard the words next Hokage and thought 'Next Hokage? Don't tell me he actually succeeded.'

Kabuto merely smirked again and said "Well now, isn't this a surprise. I will admit that you are talented Naruto. But compared to Lord Orochimaru and me, you are nothing more than an academy student. After all, I can go toe to toe with Kakashi. And lets face it, the only way you're so good is that you use the Kyubi's chakra. Without it, you're nothing."

Naruto smirked at this as well and said "You know Kabuto, for a spy, you sure did a lousy job collecting Intel."

Kabuto scowled at this before his chakra scalpel flared, bypassing Naruto's wind palm and slightly cutting into Naruto's hand. Naruto's eyes widened for a second before he round house kicked Kabuto in the chest sending him flying. As Kabuto hit the ground, Naruto looked at his hand as Kyubi healed it.

'Ok, note to self: medical chakra is able to slip through elemental chakra.'

He brought his focus back to his opponent as he began standing up. Smirking, Naruto said over his shoulder "Get ready Tsunade, I'm about to take that necklace."

Tsunade kept watching still in minor shock but still thinking and was wondering what the younger blond had planned.

Kabuto scowled and launched himself at Naruto with his scalpels once again activated. Naruto calmly watched him get closer before a spinning sphere of chakra appeared in his hand in exactly one second before he shoved his hand into Kabuto's chest.


	32. Clash of the TitansHomecoming

Clash Of The Titans/Homecoming

Field Outside Of Tanzaku Town

Orochimaru and Jiraiya were currently fighting with Orochimaru throwing taunts out and Jiraiya simply doing his best to make do with the poison that was still lingering in his system. A short distance away, Naruto was protecting Tsunade with Shizune hanging back.

All of a sudden, they both saw out of the corners of their eyes Naruto thrust his hand into Kabuto's chest with a complete sphere of blue chakra in it. Orochimaru's eyes widened as he saw Kabuto get launched into a boulder twenty feet away.

'That's' "That boy is no good." 'I cannot allow him to fall into Akatsuki's hands.'

Jiraiya chuckled and said "You don't have the luxury to be looking away."

Orochimaru got a sick smile before kicking Jiraiya out of the way and launched himself at Naruto. Jiraiya cursed to himself before launching himself at his old teammate.

Naruto caught movement out of the corner of his eye and saw Orochimaru coming right at him with his sword Kusanagi in his mouth.

'Oh, that's not good.' He thought to himself mentally preparing himself for a fight he knew he couldn't win without his father's help before he saw Jiraiya form a lasso from chakra strings and reeled the snake back towards him.

Naruto gave a quick sigh of relief before turning back to Kabuto who, to Naruto, Shizune, and Tsunade's shock, was shakily getting back to his feet with the burns on his chest slowly healing.

Seeing their shocked looks, Kabuto chuckled and said "Surprised? Don't be. There is a reason that I'm Lord Orochimaru's right hand, and it's not because of my fighting abilities or instincts. It's because of my abilities to heal. After all, Lord Orochimaru goes through a lot of experiments and needs someone who can make it possible to reuse patients."

Tsunade and Shizune looked disgusted at what Kabuto was implying while Naruto simply cocked an eyebrow before he suddenly grinned. Before Kabuto could ask what was so funny, Naruto formed another rasengan, this time in his left hand, and this one at half size. But he didn't stop there as he attached a one foot long chakra thread to it and then formed another rasengan attached to the other end. Picking up the two rasengan at the middle of the thread in his right hand, Naruto's grin got bigger as he began swinging his wrist causing the two rasengans to begin spinning around his hand.

Raising his hand over his head, Naruto kept spinning the two spheres around as they became nothing but a blue blur looking like a circle around his wrist as he said "Lets see how you handle this one four eyes. Rasenboa!"

Right after he said this, he launched the spinning boa right at Kabuto whose eyes widened before he just barely managed to launch himself to the side while the attack sliced through the boulder at his back like a hot knife through butter before the two rasengans lost stability and exploded ten feet behind it.

Back with the other two Sannin, both had seen the new attack and Jiraiya's jaw dropped as he thought 'How the hell did I not think of that?' He quickly had to shake himself though as Orochimaru launched a kick at him and the two went back at it.

Meanwhile, Kabuto's face paled as he looked at the damage while Shizune and Tsunade's jaws dropped.

Naruto had a proud grin on his face at what he just accomplished before another regular sized sphere appeared in his right hand.

When Kabuto saw it, his eyes narrowed and he said "As if I would let you use that again!" before he launched himself at the younger blond.

Naruto just smirked as Kabuto got within five feet of him before he launched his right arm forward and the rasengan launched itself from Naruto's hand with a chakra string attached to it as Naruto called out "Rasenlance!"

Kabuto's eyes widened again as he tried to dodge the modified rasengan a second time. He was partly successful with the Rasenlance hitting his left shoulder instead of the center of his chest. Naruto dropped the technique as soon as it connected and launched himself at Kabuto who was launched into the air in a spin before landing on the ground. Just as Naruto's fist was about to make contact with his stomach, Kabuto rolled out of the way and struck out with a hastily constructed chakra scalpel to Naruto's left ankle. Naruto jumped over the strike and came down with an axe kick that Kabuto hastily jumped back to avoid.

As soon as Naruto landed, he rushed Kabuto using the snake style to dodge Kabuto's hands while constantly forcing him away from Tsunade step by step. Fists and feet flew as Naruto felt himself slip further and further into a familiar state of battle. To him, there was nothing but him and his opponent. Action and Reaction. Attack and Counter.

Kabuto was starting to get worried as he tried to once again slash at Naruto with his scalpels. Naruto dodged it just as easily as he had the rest as he ducked down and tried to sweep Kabuto's feet before following up with a rising punch from his right hand. As Kabuto did his best to avoid the fist in the air, he kicked out his left foot which would have sent Naruto's head back if he had hadn't jerked it to the side before grabbing the foot and twisted it. Kabuto was forced to go with the move or suffer a broken joint while he did his best not to leave any openings. It was quickly becoming clear to the combat medic nin that he was fighting someone who not only knew how to fight, he was fighting someone who seemed to come by it instinctively. And that's what worried him. If Naruto was this good at such a young age now, how good would he be when he got older?

Back with Orochimaru and Jiraiya

Jiraiya was concentrating hard as he fought his old teammate. He and Orochimaru were currently at a semi stalemate as they fought to kill the other one. Orochimaru's useless arms were acting as a good equaling factor against Jiraiya's poisoned state so neither had an advantage as they fought. As Orochimaru jumped back to avoid an axe kick, he took a glance towards the other fight and frowned at what he saw.

Jiraiya followed his gaze and smirked as he saw Naruto fighting Kabuto on equal grounds so easily. He didn't have time to say anything to antagonize Orochimaru though since said traitor disengaged and jumped back to a position about a hundred feet from Jiraiya.

Orochimaru gave a sick smile to Jiraiya before saying "Kabuto! It's time!"

Kabuto heard his master call him and quickly jumped back from Naruto to join him. As soon as Kabuto disengaged their fight, Naruto jumped back as well to stand in front of Tsunade again who had been watching the fight with a critical eye trying to figure out how someone so young could fight so well against a Jounin.

As soon as Kabuto reached his master's side, he spread blood along a tattoo and the summoning seal on it glowed. Immediately after, a giant two headed snake appeared with Orochimaru and Kabuto on each head. Jiraiya immediately bit his thumb and ran through the necessary hand signs to summon Gamabunta.

Naruto saw this and got ready to get Tsunade and Shizune out of the area so that they wouldn't be in the way when he saw what Jiraiya had actually summoned. He sweat dropped when he saw one of the boss toad's sons, Gamakichi.

Orochimaru laughed his sick laugh and said "Ah, Jiraiya, always playing the fool."

Jiraiya gritted his teeth but before he could try again he heard "Pervy Sage! Keep that snake from going anywhere! I'll handle the rest!"

Orochimaru and Jiraiya looked over at where Naruto was with Tsunade and Shizune standing behind him as he started running through hand signs as fast as he could. Orochimaru frowned and was about to attack him to stop whatever he was going to do when Jiraiya distracted him with a cry of "Earth Style: Swamp of the Underworld!"

Orochimaru's head snapped over towards where Jiraiya was before he looked down and saw a swamp form underneath his summons causing it to begin sinking. But before he could think up his next move, he and Kabuto heard Naruto finish his justu.

"Lighting Style: Grand Lightning Storm Justu!"

Static electricity in the air around all of the fighters began visibly crackling as it was drawn into a center point over the summons. Orochimaru and Kabuto jumped off their mount as the static electricity "cloud" suddenly discharged over a hundred bolts of lightning in a matter of seconds into the summon who writhed in pain with a scream of agony before the storm ended leaving it a smoking husk before disappearing in a poof of smoke.

Everyone's eyes widened as Naruto began panting from using such a high powered lightning jutsu.

Orochimaru's eyes narrowed as he looked at Naruto who straightened his back up and glanced back at his current charge before looking back in front of him.

'This boy cannot remain alive. He is too much of a threat.' Orochimaru thought before turning to Kabuto and saying "I believe it's time to step things up a notch."

Kabuto nodded and smeared some blood on the tattoo on Orochimaru's other arm.

Jiraiya saw this and said "Naruto! We need Bunta!"

Naruto and Tsunade saw what Kabuto did and both bit their thumbs as Naruto jumped away from the two women.

Tsunade landed first and slammed her palm on the ground summoning the slug boss Katsyu with Tsunade and Shizune standing on her head.

Tsunade turned to Shizune and said "Shizune, find some cover."

Shizune nodded and ran down the slug's back as quickly as she could to find somewhere safe.

Naruto landed close to Jiraiya already done with his one handed hand signs and slammed both palms on the ground.

Everyone besides Jiraiya and Naruto's eyes widened as Naruto summoned not only Gamabunta but a boss that they had never seen before.

As the smoke cleared, it showed Jiraiya standing on Gamabunta's head and Naruto on Tsumiaya's. As soon as the two summons smoke clouds dispersed, Naruto dropped to a knee and began panting even more from the exhaustion that came with summoning two boss summons simultaneously after performing an A-rank lightning jutsu.

Tsumiaya's eyes rolled upwards to look at her summoner as she said **"Are you all right Naruto? And why have you summoned me here?"**

Naruto grabbed a couple of soldier pills from his weapons pouch and popped them in his mouth before he stood back up and said "I'm fine Tsumiaya. As for why I've summoned you, we need your help dealing with a couple of traitors."

Tsumiaya followed the arm Naruto pointed towards where Orochimaru and Kabuto were standing on Manda's head and said **"Very well then."**

Gamabunta was also talking to Jiraiya as he looked up at the Sannin.

"**Jiraiya, what is going on here? I was having a talk with the elders when I'm suddenly summoned right next to Tsumiaya."**

Jiraiya looked down and said "Naruto summoned you and Tsumiaya here because we have some unfinished business to take care of."

Gamabunta looked to where Jiraiya nodded and saw Manda and said **"I see."**

Katsyu was simply looking around and listening to the two conversations while Manda looked around before looking up and began berating his summoner.

"**Orochimaru! Why have you summoned me?"**

Kabuto began mentally sweating as he said "Please Lord Manda, we require your aid."

Manda hissed before saying **"Quite whelp! I was not talking to you! Orochimaru, you better give me two hundred sacrifices for calling me to fight this many opponents!"**

Kabuto swallowed and thought 'This is bad. If Manda learns that Lord Orochimaru cannot use his arms, he could turn on us.'

Orochimaru merely smiled and said "Of course Manda. But for now, just help us kill these fools."

Back with the other three summons, Naruto said "It's three against one. How the hell does that guy think he's got a snowball's chance in hell fighting against us. That snake should just leave right now."

Tsumiaya allowed a smirk to form before saying **"I'm sure he's thinking about it, but his pride is probably telling him to stay."**

Gamabunta was drawing his dagger as he said **"I always wanted a snake skin wallet."**

Manda's eyes narrowed dangerously as he said **"And I just so happen to be in the mood right now for some toad jerky."**

Tsumiaya rolled her eyes and the pointless banter before she spread her legs so that she could take whatever action needed.

Tsunade looked down and said "Get ready Katsyu."

"**Yes my lady."**

The four summons stared at each other for a minute waiting for some signal before Manda suddenly shot himself at Katsyu and wrapped himself around her and began squeezing the giant slug. But Katsyu suddenly broke into hundreds of smaller slugs and they rushed out of the snake's grip getting clear before Tsumiaya who was the closest summon brought her head back before launching a fire stream at the snake with Naruto adding fuel to the fire with a wind jutsu. Gamabunta was right behind them as he jumped to the side before shooting oil to the flames with Jiraiya launching his own fire jutsu to add to the heat.

As the flames kept going for a few seconds, Naruto and Tsumiaya narrowed their eyes as he said "Did we get them?"

"**Not likely."**

Before more could be said, the flames died down enough to see a snake skin but nothing else inside the flames. Everyone looked around trying to find the snake when it suddenly attacked from underground. Gamabunta was forced to drop his dagger as a purple tail came from the ground ready to smash into him.

Gamabunta managed to stop the tail but this was exactly what Manda had been planning on as his head came out of the ground behind him. Gamabunta didn't have time to move out of the way but he didn't need to in the end when Tsunade appeared in the air holding his dagger before slamming it through the top of Manda's mouth and into the ground forcefully shutting the giant snake's mouth.

Naruto stared wide eyed at the scene for a few seconds before he shook his head as he looked down to his summon and said "Remind never to piss her off during her time of the month."

Tsumiaya simply snorted and rolled her eyes before the two launched a joint wind attack at the rest of Manda's body cutting it all over. Katysu joined in by shooting acid onto his other side.

Meanwhile, Orochimaru had launched his tongue at Tsunade and was trying to strangle her from a distance when she grabbed the tongue and pulled Orochimaru towards her. As soon as he was close enough to her, he punched the traitor away before pulling him back and repeating the process. Finally after five punches, she let go and punched him down towards where Manda's head was where he promptly made a crater upon impact.

Manda looked down at him and said **"Orochimaru, you better be glad this dagger is in my mouth or I would eat you. As it is, I won't be able to eat anything solid for a week. But next time you summon me I WILL eat you."**

And with that, the snake disappeared in a poof of smoke leaving the dagger behind. Seeing Manda leave, Katsyu and Gamabunta also disappeared in poofs of smoke with Gamabunta's dagger doing the same right after.

Tsumiaya looked up at Naruto and said **"You have done well Naruto. Till next time."**

Naruto nodded and Tsumiaya left as well. When Naruto landed, he rushed over to where Tsunade and Jiraiya were with Shizune running towards them from where she had hid. By the time they reached the two, Orochimaru and Kabuto were already long gone.

Jiraiya turned as he heard his godson come up to him and said "Good job back there Naruto."

Naruto nodded as Tsunade turned around as well and studied him for a minute. Then she smiled and said "Well brat, a bet's a bet."

And with that, she reached behind her neck and pulled the necklace from around her neck before walking over to him and placed it around his neck. She then took a step back and said "Something tells me that you're going to go far Naruto."

Naruto simply nodded with a smile as the group took off back to Tanzaku Town.

Scene Change: Next Day Tea House In Tanzaku Town

The group had decided the previous day to stay in town for another day and then leave the morning after so that way they could recover from any minor injuries they gained from yesterday's fight. Naruto was currently outside of a teahouse in the downtown region thinking about what he was about to do.

Taking a deep breath, he thought 'Well might as well get it over with.'

With that he walked in and located Tsunade who was currently sitting down by herself sipping tea with her back against the wall. Locating his target, he took another calming breath before walking over towards her.

Tsunade had just taken another sip of tea as she thought about what she would find when she returned to the village when she heard something that made her look up and do a double take.

"Excuse me Lady Tsunade, but I was wondering if I could talk to you about something."

Tsunade looked at Naruto who was standing next to her and her eyes widened slightly at the Elite Chunnin vest Naruto was now wearing now that the mission no longer required them to not draw attention. Tsunade cocked an eyebrow as she took in the horizontal black stripe and thought to herself 'No wonder he held his own so well yesterday.'

Shaking her head to get her thoughts back in order she said "Sure kid, what did you want to talk about?"

Naruto sat down and said "Well you see the thing is, if at all possible, I want to learn medical jutsu. At the academy and as a Gennin, I never had time to learn anything other than the basics of first aid. Now that I am a Chunnin, I should have more free time so I was hoping that I could learn at least the basics of medical jutsu so that way I can be able to better handle situations where someone needs medical attention during a mission."

Tsunade studied him for a few seconds before saying "There is something else isn't there Naruto? What else is making you want to do this?"

Naruto sighed before saying "I was once on a mission where we received bad Intel. It nearly cost my teammates their lives. I felt so helpless when me and Kakashi-sensei were rushing back to the village with them trying to get them to the hospital as fast as we could. I want to be able to do more next time if that ever happens again. Even if it's just a little more."

Tsunade studied him again and then nodded before saying "Very well. I'll teach you some of the basics and depending on how you do, we'll go on from there. We'll start once we get settled back in the village. But I must warn you, learning medical jutsu is not a walk in the park. You will have to work hard at it, am I clear?"

Naruto nodded and thanked her before heading back to the hotel.

Scene Change: Hidden Leaf Village One Week Later

Hinata was currently standing at the main village gates watching for a certain group of people to come that was expected today. Behind her, people were going about their business before a sudden explosion of foam went off in an alley way coating nearby passerby as they ran screaming away from the menace.

Hinata sighed as she saw it happen. Matto had taken Naruto's ideas to heart and along with Konohamaru and his friends, had launched a crusade of terror against the citizens of the village in a massive prank war between themselves for the past few weeks. Not even the Hokage had been spared as the two pranksters fought for dominance over the village.

Fountains had been dyed or erupted in foam. The Hokage Monument had been painted at least three times. People had been randomly pied with whip cream pies while store owners found their front windows painted with what looked like Naruto's shadow clones on them with victory signs next to their "artwork." Others would walk next to trash cans only for their lids to fly off, scaring the crap out of any cats who were on the lids or nearby. Ninja training in training fields were pelted with paintballs launched by traps that went off when they entered certain areas while the Jounin lounge was painted burning orange and then hot pink right after it got cleaned the first time. Water balloons were launched by the hundreds one day straight into the heart of the market place soaking over a thousand people as they landed in tightly packed groups. One day at the academy, every single teacher had sat down on their seats to begin class only to find a whoopee cushion on their seats hidden by ninja camouflage cloth.

The list just went on and on, and while there were no casualties besides extremely embarrassed or freaked out people, everyone was jumpy after so long of constant pranks being pulled.

Mizuki had actually caught Iruka looking around corners with a mirror more than once and some civilians and even a few other ninja actually began doing the same.

Matto walked up to her with a proud smirk on his face as he said "Hey there Hinata. No sign of them yet?"

Hinata sighed again while shaking her head before saying "Not yet. Anyway, do you really think it was a good idea to do that when our new Hokage well be here any minute now? Also, I'm pretty sure that Naruto didn't want you to do all those pranks for so long."

Matto simply shrugged and said "Their not here yet, and besides, if Naruto didn't want me doing this for so long why did he leave me with so many ideas?"

Hinata groaned before she saw help coming her way. Smiling at the reinforcements she said "Heza, thank goodness. Do you think you can put a leash on your boyfriend for a while? I don't think this village can take much more of this."

Heza just sighed and said "I have to agree with Hinata Matto, you and the Konohamaru corps need to stop. Any more pranks right now and the whole village is likely to go insane with paranoia."

Matto laughed and said "Oh come on Heza! It's not that bad!"

Right as he said that, two water balloons flew from outside of the village and landed on top of his head before they burst soaking him. Everyone who saw this laughed out loud at the current lord of terror getting his due. Matto simply had a gob smacked look on his face as he looked at where the balloons came from while Heza and Hinata simply smirked as they looked back to where they originated.

A hundred feet away from the gates, stood a group of four people with a pig standing next to them. The two males were trading high fives and laughing while the two women just stood there with dropped jaws.

The leaf village's number one prankster and most surprising ninja was back.

(Naruto's POV)

We had made good time from Tanzaku Town and by the end of the week, the village gates were in sight. Tsunade stopped when she saw them for a minute before seeming to get herself together. She straightened her back and continued walking with Shizune by her side with Ton Ton in her hands. Me and Jiraiya were to their right as we talked about different book styles that were used out there.

As we got closer to the village, I instantly spotted how the people were walking and grinned recognizing how they were all looking around. If I was reading their body language right, a prank just went off somewhere. I then noticed my former teammates talking to Hinata and saw Matto smirking. It was pretty obvious to me who had pulled said prank off.

An idea came to me and I turned to Jiraiya before saying "Hey Pervy Sage, remember when you said I could probably put the rest of those water balloons to good use?"

Jiraiya looked down and said "Yeah, what about it?"

As Tsunade and Shizune looked confused, I grinned and pointed to Matto. Jiraiya's eyes widened as he figured out what I had meant and began grinning as well. I unsealed the bag and took two water balloons out before handing one to Jiraiya and resealing the bag.

Before Tsunade or Shizune could say anything, we launched our balloons at the same time and nailed Matto with arched shots.

The women's jaws dropped as Jiraiya and I burst out laughing at Matto's expression on his face while we traded high fives. It was good to be back.

(Normal POV)

Naruto smirked at Matto as he admired his and his godfather's work as his group walked up to him and the girls. Matto just stared at him for a minute before shaking his head and muttered something about being dethroned so quickly.

He then went up to Hinata and gave her a quick kiss before saying "Miss me?"

Hinata smiled and said "You know it." Her face then got serious as she said "You have no idea what you unleashed when you asked Matto to pull those pranks."

Naruto cocked an eyebrow before saying "It couldn't have been that bad could it?"

Hinata rose and eyebrow as well and said "Bad enough that Iruka-sensei hasn't come out of his apartment for a whole week. Supposedly, they had to get a substitute teacher for his class. Matto and the Konohamaru corps had this village on its knees."

Naruto winced at that before turning to his fellow blue eyed friend and said "Matto, you and I are going to have a talk later. You were supposed to liven up the village while I was gone, not start a reign of terror."

Heza and Hinata got "I told you so" looks while Matto shrunk from the look in Naruto's eyes.

Naruto just sighed while lightly shaking his head before turning to the two women who were standing next to him before he said "Now then, guys, let me introduce to you Lady Tsunade of the Sannin and her apprentice Shizune."

The three Chunnin's eyes widened and Heza said "That's Lady Tsunade?"

Naruto grinned and said "Yup."

Heza and Hinata walked over and bowed before Heza said "Let me just say what an honor it is to meet you Lady Tsunade."

Tsunade smiled at the two and said "Why thank you, you two."

Jiraiya then stepped up and said "Hate to break this party up, but we really need to get to the tower."

Naruto nodded and began walking towards the tower with him and his fellow Chunnin falling into escort formation as they escorted the two Sannin towards the tower. As they headed to their destination, people were talking among themselves as word of Jiraiya and Naruto returning with one of Jiraiya's teammates and her apprentice rushed ahead of them.

Halfway through the village, a squad of Anbu joined the four Chunnin's escort formation with the squad leader nodding at Naruto who returned the gesture.

Once the group reached the tower, The Anbu escort left to go patrol while Hinata, Heza, and Matto went to the hospital saying that they were going to check on Kakashi and Sasuke and would meet Naruto there. The rest of the group then entered and headed to the Hokage's office. At the office's door, Naruto knocked on the door and opened it when he heard his current leader tell them to enter.

As the group stepped in, Sarutobi smiled and said "Ah Jiraiya, Naruto. I see your mission was successful. Tsunade, it's good to see you again. And you as well Shizune."

Jiraiya and Naruto simply nodded and as Naruto said "Yes sir, mission accomplished."


	33. Secrets Revealed

Secrets Revealed

Author's Notes: Sorry for the short update. Still trying to think about how to branch this and when Sasuke leaves. Thought you should see what I have so far though.

Naruto and Tsunade walked into a hospital room where a patient with silver hair was in bed with two brown haired visitors sitting in chairs in the room.

Hearing the door open, Matto said "About time you got here. We left you guys at the tower almost two hours ago. What took you so long? Ow!"

Matto rubbed the back of his head while Heza lowered her hand and said "They obviously had to talk about things Matto. Besides, it's not like Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke were in absolute dire need of treatment right away."

Naruto frowned at the dismissal of his teacher and teammate's comas but shook it away since Heza did have a point.

Tsunade simply rose an eyebrow as she went over to Kakashi's side and ran a quick diagnostic scan on the cyclops. Immediately after, she started concentrating on a medical justu while she worked to repair the damage done by the Tsukuyomi.

A couple of minutes later, Kakashi groaned before opening his visible eye and sat up looking around.

Tsunade shook head and said "Ch, getting beat by a couple of thugs. I thought you were a natural Kakashi. Guess you are human after all. Well anyway, you'll be here for a few more days, but you should be out soon enough."

Kakashi didn't answer until Naruto spoke up drawing everyone's attention.

"Matto, Heza, I'm probably going to need you guys to come with me when we heal Sasuke to run damage control."

Both brunettes looked up and Matto narrowed his eyes at the tone Naruto just used before saying "Why?"

Naruto sighed before saying "Before Sasuke got hit with the Tsukuyomi I had to tell him about Kyubi. He hasn't had a chance to actually process what that means yet. Also, I'm sure he will tell Sakura about him as well. I'd rather be the one to do so and since you guys know about it as well you could probably help keep the two of them from freaking out about this."

Matto and Heza nodded and the group started leaving to head to Sasuke's room. Naruto was the last one out and turned to look at his sensei before leaving.

"Get well soon Kakashi-sensei."

Kakashi simply nodded and Naruto turned around before joining back up with the group.

As Naruto caught up to them, Matto glanced over at him before looking forward again while saying "This is going to be interesting. Why did you have to tell the kid anyways Naruto?"

Naruto sighed before saying "Truth be told, I was trying to delay a fight I really did not want to get into. Also, I felt that as my teammate he had a right to know why his brother was after me."

Matto and Heza frowned but before they could say anything, Naruto continued "Don't worry, I'll tell you guys later, but now is neither the time nor place to talk about such things."

The two nodded before they entered the room Sasuke was in where Sakura was sitting in a chair looking at him in worry.

Sakura looked up hearing the door open and was surprised to see the former Team 7 and a woman she did not know step in.

As Tsunade walked over to Sasuke's side, Naruto said "Sakura, this is Lady Tsunade of the Sannin. She's the person my godfather and I were sent to find to be our next Hokage."

Sakura's eyes widened at the info and she immediately looked at Tsunade who was concentrating on repairing the damage done to the younger Uchiha's mind. A couple of minutes later, Sasuke groaned and opened his eyes while Tsunade stepped back.

Sakura's eyes widened again before she rushed over to Sasuke and hugged him while saying how glad she was that he was alright. Sasuke seemed confused but took it in stride before noticing who else was in the room with them.

Seeing Naruto, he frowned as he remember a day a few weeks ago before looking him in the eye and asked "What happened with Itachi?"

Naruto sighed and said "He made me look like a first year academy student against the old man. He got me in the same technique he used on you and Kakashi-sensei, but fortunately I had some inside help dealing with it. Afterwards, my godfather showed up and chased him and his partner away."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed as he heard this. He obviously knew what the inside help was while Sakura looked between the two confused at what they were talking about.

Tsunade meanwhile decided that she no longer was needed and headed to the door. As she went through she said "See you around kid. I'm going to see how badly this place needs to be whipped into shape. We'll figure out a time for your lessons later."

"Yeah, sure." Naruto said while everyone looked at him before Heza cocked her head and asked what everyone was thinking.

"Lessons?"

Naruto chuckled lightly while rubbing the back of his head and said "I kinda asked her if she would teach me a little bit about medical jutsu. I didn't want a repeat of what happened during that mission."

Heza's eyes softened at this while Matto shook his head and said "Dang Naruto, how the heck do you get so many teachers? First you had Mizuki-sensei almost completely to yourself for two years at the academy. Then you got Kakashi-sensei when we became a team. Then there's your godfather, who I might add is Jiraiya of the Sannin, and just now you're telling us you have his teammate Tsunade teaching you medical jutsu?"

Sakura's eyes widened when she heard about who Naruto's godfather was while Sasuke was able to put it together when he had seen who Naruto had brought back to the village with him. Before she could ask about it though, she suddenly remembered something else she just heard and decided to ask about that first.

"Um, Naruto? What did you mean when you said that you had inside help against Sasuke's brother?"

Naruto sighed before walking to the room's door and closed it before coming back to his original position leaning against the wall. Taking a short moment to gather his thoughts, he began to tell one of the village's biggest widespread secrets.

"Sasuke, you already know what I'm talking about, so just bare with me on this one. (Sasuke nodded and he continued.) Sakura, can you tell me what we are taught about in the academy about what happened the night the Kyubi attacked?"

Sakura looked confused at the question but said "Sure. When the Kyubi attacked the village, the Fourth killed it, sacrificing his life to do so. But what does that have to do with anything?"

Naruto sighed again and said "Everything. You see Sakura, what the academy teaches us about that night is a lie. The actual truth of what happened that night is a S-class secret of the village that if told is punishable by death. Only the Hokage and me are capable of revealing it to those we trust. The truth is the Kyubi couldn't be killed so the Fourth did the next best thing. He sealed it into the only thing that could handle the strain of a demon lord being sealed inside it. A newborn baby whose umbilical cord was just cut."

Sakura eye's widened and she gasped as the implications sunk in. Looking at Naruto as she remembered things Naruto had told her and Sasuke at various times in the past, she asked "You mean-?"

Naruto simply nodded and raised his shirt before channeling chakra to his stomach where the seal appeared for a few seconds before Naruto dropped the flow of chakra before lowering his shirt as well.

Sasuke suddenly remembered something and asked "Wait, is that why you have the fox summoning contract?"

Naruto turned to him and nodded before saying "Yeah, I've had some training with the big guy and he gave me the contract so that way I could get more training that he couldn't give to me."

Sakura's eyes bugged out again as she said "You've trained with the Kyubi? Are you insane? It tried to destroy the village!"

Naruto looked her dead in the eye and said "He only did that because he was put under a Genjustu. If he had his way, he would have never come here in the first place."

Sakura's mouth opened and closed before she suddenly remembered who else was in the room. Turning to the other two vets she said "You guys knew about this?"

The two nodded while Heza said "Naruto told us when we were being brought back to the village by Naruto and Kakashi-sensei after the last mission we did with them. We were about to be killed by these missing nin when Naruto took the blows for us. He had had four swords in his chest before this red chakra came out of nowhere and healed him before he used it to slice through the bastards like a hot knife through butter. After that, he used it to kill the rest of the nin in the area."

Sakura and Sasuke tried to wrap their minds around this while the vets answered the rest of their questions. It would be a good hour and a half until they were done before the vets left to deal with their own things.


	34. AN

Author's Note

Hey guys, I'm afraid I have some bad news. I was a bit impulsive with my writing when I had Naruto tell Sasuke about the Kyubi. It completely threw off my original plans so right now I am trying to figure out the plan for the rest of the story. I will do my best but for now, this story is on temporary hiatus. I'll see if I can work on my other story now. Who knows, might help if I do work on something not related to it. Anyway, I will update this as soon as I have a good idea.


	35. Enemy Contact

35 Enemy Contact

Author's Notes: Hey guys. Sorry for the wait on this one. But like I said last time, I messed up my overall plan for this story and had to figure out how I wanted the rest to go. Let me explain what I came up with. Sasuke is staying in the village now but there will still be a fight against the sound four in this chapter and the next one. Everything dealing with the Akatsuki will remain the same as canon. Other than that though things well be deviating from the path now. Also, each member of Team 7 will at some point have a summons as well as Hinata. Anyway, hope you guys like what comes next.

Naruto, Heza, and Matto were leaving the hospital after their talk with Sasuke and Sakura. As they left, Naruto turned to his teammates and said "Hey guys, my godfather showed me a really cool new jutsu. Want to see it in action?"

Heza and Matto glanced at each other before turning back to Naruto and nod. Naruto grinned and made a follow me motion with his hand before taking off to the rooftops and heading to their training grounds. Matto and Heza jumped after him wondering what type of jutsu their blond teammate would show them.

As soon as they reached their training ground, Naruto led his teammates to an area that had a small grouping of boulders ranging from four feet to twenty feet tall before turning to his teammates.

"You guys might want to step back a little."

As Matto and Heza took a couple of steps back, Naruto rose his right palm and said "Check this out."

Right as he said this, chakra begin spinning around in his palm for a second before condensing into a perfect sphere which gave off a soft whirring hum sound. Matto and Heza's eyes widened as they watched while Naruto smiled at their reactions.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Rasengan. This little baby here was invented by the Fourth and packs one hell of a punch. It's made by spinning your chakra and containing it in a sphere. It can either grind over a short time or release everything all at once. Observe."

Naruto then turned and walked up to the closest four foot boulder where he proceeded to grind out a hole in it. Matto and Heza's eyes widened as they watched the Rasengan drill a hole straight through the boulder in ten seconds. Naruto then went to the next boulder which was much larger and shoved the attack into the boulder. Unlike last time, the attack took relatively next to no time at all as cracks instantly formed in the boulder leading away from the sphere before the giant rock exploded into hundreds of spinning pieces.

By now his two teammates were bug eyed as they saw the total destruction the technique caused. Naruto turned around and grinned before saying "If you guys think that's cool, wait till I show you what I came up with for it."

The two looked at him as he took a position a few steps ahead of them before turning back to the next closest boulder that was about nine feet away. Forming another Rasengan in his hand, he drew back his elbow with before thrusting his entire arm out. (Think of a force push from Star Wars) The sphere shot out of Naruto's hand attached to a chakra thread and smashed into the boulder before completely demolishing it.

By now the two brunettes were slightly slack jawed as Naruto turned back around and said "Come on, we need more distance for this next one."

The two looked at him and immediately started backing away. When they were twenty feet away, Naruto formed another Rasengan. Only this time it was in his left hand and half as big as the others. Naruto added another chakra string to it before attaching the other end to another small Rasengan that he created right next to the first. Grabbing the string in his right hand, he began twirling the blue boa before launching it at the boulders.

The attack spun like a boa humming like a buzz saw as it sliced straight through the boulders before ending in a massive explosion that shook the ground once it was thirty feet away from the teens and lost focus. Matto and Heza's jaws dropped to the floor as pebbles no bigger than their finger tips started raining down into a giant crater that was the only thing remaining of the center group of boulders. Boulders that were outside of the blast zone had cracks and scorch marks covering the sides facing the explosion.

Turning to his audience, Naruto chuckled at their expressions before saying "As you can see, I took the original attack and modified it for use to remove the main disadvantage of using it. As you saw before, you could only use the attack when your opponent was in arm's reach. I made two modified versions to solve this problem. I like to call the first modified attack the Rasenlance, named due to the fact that it works much like a lance. I attach a chakra string to the rasengan which allows me to contain it at a distance up to ten feet. This prevents an enemy from getting out of the regular Rasengan's range if they are aware of what it does. I call my next modification the Rasenboa and like the name suggests, I make a boa out of two smaller rasengans and a chakra string before throwing one like a real boa to reach those who are outside of the original Rasengan and Rasenlance's range. This attack requires you to launch it as fast as possible due to its larger area of effect. This is because without a means of keeping the two stable, the attack loses stability quickly and self destructs. The attack is effective at a range up to thirty feet where it explodes after cutting through whatever was in its flight path. So, what do you guys think?"

Matto and Heza stared at him before they shook their heads and Matto grinned before saying "That was AWESOME! Think you can teach me how to do that?"

Naruto chuckled and said "We'll see."

Time Skip: One Month Later Scene: Border of Land of Fire and Land of Tea

The original members of Team 7 minus Kakashi were currently camped in a small clearing currently on border patrol. Or rather Naruto's shadow clones were. The original and his two teammates were currently using the free time Naruto's clones gave them to work on different projects.

It had been an interesting month for Team 7 after Naruto returned. As promised, Tsunade began teaching Naruto basic medical jutsu when they could meet and was impressed with how quickly he picked it up. It wasn't too hard for Naruto since he had long ago read the theory for Medical Jutsu during his "information raids" of the libraries with shadow clones and simply needed someone to show him how it was actually done since the books were pure theory and their methods weren't always the best way to do things.

Matto had been pleasantly surprised when once Kakashi was out of the hospital told him that his ability to manipulate his lightning element was finally strong enough that Kakashi could teach him the Chidori and other high level lightning jutsu. He spent most of his time with Sasuke working on them.

Heza had also managed to finish learning how to manipulate her earth element and spent most of the month on her own information raids looking for earth jutsu that she could add to her arsenal. She would work with Sakura learning the jutsu she found with the two occasionally going to Naruto for help who happily gave them a hand when he wasn't on missions outside of the village.

Naruto himself found him doing a couple of missions solo. One was a minor bandit raid that Naruto made quick work of with a squad of shadow clones backing him up while the other was a quick mission to the Sand village to escort Temari who was assigned as a liaison of the two villages.

It had been an interesting moment when they reached the main gates to find Shikamaru on guard duty for the day. Naruto had laughed for a good minute and a half when she chewed Shikamaru out when he called the two troublesome blondes during their conversation.

Naruto also made sure to spend as much time as he could with Hinata. The two were both busy during the month but were able to have a few dates where Naruto took her to a restaurant or the two just hanged out with each other on the Hokage's Monument while Naruto played one of his instruments for her.

Two days ago, Sarutobi had recommended the three original members of Team 7 for border patrol when it was time for the next week long shift since Naruto's clones would come in handy by covering more ground for longer periods. They also had the benefit of being able to instantly alert the team by mental link to the original if they ever spotted anyone.

Tsunade had agreed with him and had tasked them with watching the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Tea where the fox tracking squads sent by Tsumiaya had found the base where most of the Sound forces from the invasion had originated. Sarutobi had ordered investigation teams to it and other bases found and plans were being made to go after them in the near future.

Naruto didn't have any problem with the mission and Matto and Heza saw it as a chance of uninterrupted practice on the jutsu they were still having problems with.

So it was no surprise to Naruto when as soon as their camp was made and the two hundred clones left to their positions after henging into the local wildlife that they started working on them.

Matto was currently trying to finish the Chidori while Heza was trying to finish the Rasengan after Naruto had taught her how to use it the day after his little exhibition. Naruto himself was reading a fairly large scroll that was part of a seven piece set on different field medical jutsu that Tsunade had given him in a sealing scroll to read while he wasn't patrolling.

When Naruto had seen how large the scrolls he shook his head muttering about harsh slave drivers while Matto and Heza just laughed.

It was the second day of their week long mission and as Naruto was really getting into his reading he heard the sound of chirping birds. Looking up, he saw Matto clutching his wrist with sweat pouring down his brow as he tried to keep the jutsu active for more than ten seconds. Heza watched while she took a break from trying the third stage of the Rasengan which like Naruto, was giving her the most trouble.

Matto had the gist of the jutsu but couldn't seem to hold it very long while Heza had been able to do the first two stages in a week each but still couldn't contain the jutsu for more than fifteen seconds and was slow to create the attack taking five seconds next to Naruto's one.

Matto was able to hold the attack for about fifteen seconds before he let it drop and began panting. Naruto frowned since it shouldn't have been that hard for Matto to hold the jutsu with his increased chakra reserves.

Putting down his scroll, he walked over to where his friend was and said "Need some help?"

Matto nodded and said "If you can. I don't get it. I'm able to do other high level lightning jutsu multiple times, but for the life of me I can't get this one to stay stable for more than a few seconds."

Naruto cocked his head in thought before he made three hand signs. To Matto and Heza's surprise, his hand coated itself in lightning and the sound of birds chirping filled the air.

Matto's jaw dropped as he said "Since when could you do the Chidori?"

Naruto looked up from studying his hand and said "Kakashi-sensei taught me about a month into our training. But I'm only supposed to use it as a substitute for my wind palms technique if I'm ever fighting a fire user who can do a similar technique since my wind is overall stronger than lightning and easier for me to use."

Matto got an "oh" look on his face as Naruto went back to looking at his lightning coated hand in thought for a moment before letting the jutsu fade. Looking back up again he said "Can you run through the sequence again? I want to see how much chakra you're putting in and where."

Matto nodded and went through the hand signs again while Naruto paid close attention to sensing how much chakra was used and where it all went. Naruto's eyes narrowed in thought as the chirping began again for a few seconds before Matto dropped the jutsu after only a few seconds and began panting again.

'Hmm, the Ox and Hare signs focus and shapes the lightning nature while the Monkey sign acts as a pointer to tell the chakra where to focus at. I wonder…'

Naruto cocked his head while he was thinking before he said "Try doing it again only this time add more chakra to the Ox sign. Hold the jutsu as long as you can then try again doing the same with the Hare sign."

Matto nodded and tried again. Adding more chakra to the Ox sign gave the same results but doing the same with the Hare sign allowed Matto to hold the technique for a full half minute before Matto was forced to release the technique or risk chakra exhaustion.

As he dropped the technique, Naruto nodded to himself before saying "There's your problem. The Hare sign is the main focus point for the Chidori. Normally it takes just as much chakra as the other two signs but for some reason you need to add more to that one to get it work. Just remember to add more for that one and you should be fine.."

Matto nodded and said "Thanks, I'll have to ask Kakashi if he can figure out why that is."

Naruto nodded and went back to his scroll while Heza decided to give the Rasengan another shot.

Two days later, Heza finally was able to get the Rasengan down to the point where she could now hold it for a full minute and her creation speed was down to two seconds. Naruto had told her to keep working on it until she could do it in one like him and hold it for two minutes straight but that for now she could truthfully claim she knew it. (Note that there is a difference between knowing a technique and mastering it.)

Matto had finally been able to hold his Chidori stable for a minute and had happily taken out a few trees with it for the first time.

Naruto was currently almost done reading his third scroll and was about to start on the fourth when he one of his clones sent out a widespread message showing all of the other clones and the original four blurs heading across the border.

Seeing Naruto's head jerk up, his two teammates grew concerned and Heza asked "What is it Naruto?"

Naruto sealed up his scroll and said "One of my clones just sent me a memory message. We've got company coming over the border. Four ninjas moving at high speed towards the village." Naruto frowned as another clone was able to get a good look and dispelled itself to give the rest the best possible visual ids before continuing "It looks like the same four that had raised the barrier when me and the old man fought Orochimaru."

Matto and Heza looked worried as Heza asked "What should we do?"

Naruto cocked his head and sent an inquiry to the clones in front of the group's path. Smirking as he received a reply, he said "Stop them. They have curse seals on them but are only Chunnin level without them. And we should be able to take them with the Rasengan and Chidori if they do use them. I'm sending a clone to the village just in case. They'll be level with our position in fifteen minutes. Pack up, we leave in five."

Matto and Heza nodded as they went about the camp putting out the fire and dropping the tents before sealing everything inside sealing scrolls. Naruto in the mean time created a clone with enough of his father's chakra to reach the Hokage's tower quickly by tree jumping at a good clip and leading a team back to them before sending it off. Right after that, he sent a message to the rest of the clones telling them to head towards the village and to set up chakra traps halfway through in case the original and his team had trouble.

Fifteen minutes later, the four Sound ninja were jumping through the trees towards the village. They kept their senses peeled for any patrols and were starting to wonder why they hadn't sensed any yet. The one with six arms kept looking around.

Finally the female of the group couldn't take it anymore and said "Well you knock the fuck off! Your driving me bat shit crazy!"

The fat member of their group said "Now Tayuya,, that's not a very lady like thing to say."

Before the redhead could retort to that, the six armed one said "Well you guys knock it off! Just because we haven't run into a patrol yet doesn't mean there isn't one out there. There is no way their security is this lax."

As if to punctuate his statement, an arrow with an explosion tag suddenly shot in front of them into a tree. All four sound nins' eyes widened as the tag went off right as they passed it.

With Team 7, Naruto was looking through the forest before turning to Heza who had a bow out and said "Nice shot Heza." Turning to Matto after she nodded he said "You ready for this?"

Matto nodded and ran through a quick series of hand signs before saying "Lightning Style: Lightning Arrow Jutsu!" Right after he finished his technique, a bow made out of lightning appeared in his hands with a quiver of fifteen lightning arrows appeared on his back.

Naruto nodded as well before creating five clones as well and the six blondes did the same.

All eight archers then drew an arrow and drew it back before simultaneously launching them.

Back with the four sound nin, Tayuya was shaking her head as she said "Where the fuck did that come from?"

Before they could say anything, more regular arrows mixed in with even more lightning arrows suddenly shot right at them causing all four of them to curse as they did their best to try to avoid the onslaught of arrows that were now being shot in a wide spread pattern with the lightning arrows mostly going through the trees to flush them out while the regular arrows went straight towards them.

As soon as Matto and Naruto ran out of arrows, they dropped the jutsu and with Heza who had sealed her bow charged the sound nin at high speed hoping to get them fast.

The sound nin with two heads spotted them coming in and shouted out "Nine O'clock!" right before Naruto's wind coated fist slammed into and through his head before it threw the body away. Matto slammed his own fist covered in lightning into the six armed nin's throat while Heza attacked the female team member with an earth hardened fist of her own into the redhead's ribcage.

As those three members flew away, Naruto turned ready to take out the last member but he jumped down towards the ground. Landing, he looked up at the Leaf nin with narrowed eyes.

But before anyone could say anything, three different groups of kunai launched themselves at Team 7 who scattered to avoid them. The three sound nin who they thought they had already dealt with appeared looking like nothing happened but were obviously pissed off.

Team 7's eyes widened as Matto said "No way, those guys don't have a scratch on them. I know that two headed guy got his head shredded by Naruto though so what's going on?"

Said two headed man smirked and said "You brats will have to do a lot better than that if you want to defeat the members of Orochimaru's body guard, the Sound Four!"

Matto and Heza's eyes widened as Naruto sent a mental command to the clones that were still where the three had originally been. His response was a roaring sound as he grabbed Matto and Heza and headed to the forest floor before five huge fireballs roared through the trees and hit the area the three were standing.

But before they could see if that had finished the job, the final member of the Sound Four ran through a quick sequence of hand signs before slamming his palms on the ground with a cry of "Earth Style: Earth Barrier-Clay Prison Jutsu!"

A ring of rocks popped up around the three and before they could react formed a dome surrounding them. Inside the dome, Matto groaned and said "Of all the stupid earth barrier jutsu he could use, why did it have to be this one?"

Heza nodded obviously agreeing with him and Naruto couldn't blame the two. They had ran into it when a C-rank missing Rock nin had been among some bandits during their second bandit raid and used it against them. Fortunately for them Kakashi had dealt with the nin before he could drain them completely dry.

Kakashi wasn't there now but that suited Naruto just fine. He had an idea how to get his team out and he would bet a lot of money on it working.

Before he could start his plan, the three leaf nin heard their captor talking to the other three.

Matto cocked his head as he listened and said "Well I guess that tells us whether or not your clones got them."

Naruto nodded even as said clones took position to ambush the fatso if the original's plan didn't work.

Outside, the Sound Four were talking to themselves.

"You guys go ahead and deal with the rest of the group and then keep going. I'll drain them dry and then catch up with you guys later." The fat one said.

"Very well Jirobo, just don't take too long." The two headed man replied.

Jirobo nodded while the others spread out trying to find the clones who dropped their presences as low as possible before henging into the wild life to avoid them before they gave up and left.

As soon as Naruto received confirmation of the rest of the group leaving their captor from his clones, he got his teammates attention and begin battle signing his plan to them.

As soon as the two nodded and got into position, Naruto walked over to where he thought their captor was. He decided to be safe and double check before he got things started.

"Hey Fatso! Let us out of here right now! This is your one and only chance!"

Jirobo scoffed from his position of maintaining the dome and said "Oh yeah? And what are you going to do from in there huh? Your chakra is mine!"

Naruto grinned and began drawing on his father's chakra before saying "Didn't your mother ever teach you anything? You play with fire, you're going to get burned!"

Right after he said that, Naruto slammed his palms into the wall and poured the red chakra into it sending it straight to its source.

Outside, Jirobo suddenly felt a stinging sensation in his arms which quickly turned into pain as his arms began to blacken from the poisonous chakra. His eyes widened as he jumped back to look at his arms which released the technique.

But before he could shout out a question, he heard the sound of chirping birds and a humming sound. As he looked up, he saw two spheres of chakra hit his lungs and a hand coated in lightning pierce his chest.

Matto pulled out his hand from Jirobo's heart as Naruto and Heza dropped their Rasengans as Jirobo sunk to the ground deader than a door nail.

Naruto looked down at the corpse before turning to the clones who jumped down next to them and said "Locate the others but don't engage till we catch up."

The clones saluted before taking off while Naruto sealed the body for the guys back at the village to study. Turning to his teammates he said "Let's hunt some Sound."

The two nodded before taking off after the clones towards the village.


	36. The Hunt Is On

36 The Hunt Is On

Author's Notes: Sorry this is late. I have two partly good reasons and one not so good. Not so good was I just got caught up reading again. First partly good reason was that I was not sure how to finish what happens next. Next one is I'm not sure how to do the next step. So I have a question. Should I kill all four sound nin or have one of the last two fighters be captured for interrogation? Anyway, R&Rs welcome as always. Let's get started.

Team 7 caught up to Naruto's clones after a few minutes and joined them on the hunt. Ten minutes later, they had their targets in Naruto's sensor range.

Slowing down to maintain the distance between the two groups, Naruto turned around to face the rest of the group and said "All right, listen up. Judging from what happened last time, we aren't going to be able to take these guys out with one hit kills. The last guy only fell due to leaving himself open and these guys are sure to be on edge since they never found the clones. I'm going to hit them with a long range wind jutsu as a battle opener and then we're going to hit them hard with the big guns. Use the Rasengan and Chidori only if you are one hundred percent sure that it will connect. We can't waste chakra on a fight that we don't know how long will last. Clones, you're our backup. I want you guys to hang back until I give you the command to give us a hand. When I do, use the strongest attacks you can. Remember that it's going to be danger close so you're going to have to be as accurate as possible."

Matto and Heza nodded as the clones gave abbreviated salutes. Naruto nodded as well before turning back around and increased his speed back to pursuit levels. The group increased their speed as well and were in range thirty seconds later. Naruto concentrated and everyone felt the wind shifting around them.

Meanwhile, the three sound nin were getting anxious from the fact that their teammate hadn't regrouped with them yet.

Tayuya looked back and said "Where the hell is that fatso? He should have been here by now."

The six armed man looked back as well and said "Maybe he ran into that other group that tried to ambush us. By the way Sakon, what do we do about Sasuke if Jirobo doesn't return? We can't do the procedure without four people."

The two headed man considered for a moment before he said "If Jirobo does not return by the time we have him we shall simply escort Sasuke to Lord Orochimaru as he is. The procedure can wait until we reach the Sound. Right now getting him there is more important."

The others nodded before they heard a shout behind them that warned them that they had more to worry about than just where their teammate was.

"Wind Style: Grand Wind Dragon Jutsu!"

A massive dragon made out of air with yellow eyes tore itself through the forest before rising up and slamming right on top of the three sound nin at a forty five degree angle . The three nin crashed into the ground before rolling a good thirty feet through the forest floor before stopping when their bodies slammed into a couple of tree trunks. Sakon and Tayuya had landed together against one tree while their teammate was against the closest tree on their right.

The three nin shook their heads trying to clear them. But before they could get to their feet, they heard three more jutsu being called.

"Wind Style: Wind Dragon Jutsu!"

"Lightning Style: Lightning Dragon Jutsu!"

"Earth Style: Earth Dragon Jutsu!"

A smaller but no less fierce wind dragon shot at the trio with a lightning and earth dragons right on its tail. The three sound nin barely got clear before the three dragons slammed right where they had been a second ago. The ground shook as the three attacks converged at a single point throwing dirt and rock into the air while the trees the trio landed against fell from having their roots and trunks destroyed.

The three sound were looking around trying to spot their attackers when a yellow blur slammed itself into the six armed man sending him into another tree. Before Sakon and Tayuya could attack the now visible Naruto, a giant boulder tore through the underbrush right towards their location. The two jumped to either side of it before two dogs made out of lightning rushed at them in a zigzag pattern and slammed into the two throwing them against trees of their own.

Matto and Heza appeared at Naruto's side as the smoke from the Sound nins' second introduction to the tree trunks began fading. All three leaf nins' eyes narrowed as symbols etched on each of the three sound nins' bodies could be seen retracting into seals on their necks.

The three sound nins stood up while their curse marks finished receding. Tayuya took one look at the three in front of them and her eyes widened.

"How the fuck did they get out?"

Sakon and their teammate looked at them with slightly wide eyes as well before Sakon said "That other group must have ambushed Jirobo."

The six armed man cracked his neck and knuckles before saying "Doesn't matter. What does is that they're here now. You two get going. I'll deal with these flies."

Naruto rose and eyebrow and said "And what makes you think you'll do any better than your friend did?"

The man smirked and said "Jirobo was the weakest one of us. I think you'll find that I'm a much stronger opponent than him."

Sakon frowned and said "Don't get cocky Kidomaru. We still don't know where that other group is."

The now introduced Kidomaru scoffed and said "Oh don't worry, I'll find them and destroy them as well."

Tayuya scowled and said "You better not mess this up you shit head."

Kidomaru simply waved one of his arms at her and said "Yeah, yeah. Keep your skirt on woman."

Before Tayuya could reply, Sakon turned and left and Tayuya decided not to waste her breath and followed.

Naruto frowned at this before sending a mental message to his clones at the halfway point to get ready just in case they didn't catch up with the two fast enough.

"So how do you want to do this Naruto?" Matto asked as he settled into a defensive stance with Heza sliding into one as well.

Naruto analyzed his opponent and said "Stay out of that guy's reach. With that many arms he could tear you to pieces in a Taijutsu match. We're going to have to work at range on this one."

The two nodded while Kidomaru smirked and said "How do you plan to do that when your caught in my web?"

Right after he said this, Kidomaru spat out a web from his mouth right at the trio who scattered to avoid the shot. The three took to the trees as Kidomaru began shooting more webs out of his mouth and from his arms as well. Naruto and his teammates kept moving through the trees trying to get enough space to launch a jutsu at Kidomaru but the six armed nin kept them moving. Naruto finally had enough and as another web was shot at him decided to test something. Just before the web hit him, he created a shadow clone in front of him who activated his wind palms technique and shredded the web apart when it reached them.

As Naruto's shadow clone dispelled itself, Kidomaru's eyes widened as Naruto grinned and said "Time to take this up a notch."

Naruto sheathed himself in a wind shield before launching himself down from the tree branch he was standing on. As soon as he hit the ground, he rushed towards Kidomaru who was frantically shooting webs trying to stop the blond while backpedaling. Naruto sliced through each web as he got closer before swinging out an arm to cut off the spider like nin's head. Matto and Heza watched expecting the fight to be over right then and there, but were surprised when Kidomaru raised one of his arms and blocked the blow.

Naruto's own eyes widened as he saw the golden armor that had seemed to appear out of no where while Kidomaru's curse seal activated to stage one. Kidomaru took advantage of Naruto's shock by launching a punch at Naruto which sent him flying into a tree trunk causing a crack to run up the trunk.

Hidden Leaf Village Outside of Hokage Tower

Naruto's shadow clone flinched and said "Ow, that had to hurt." The Anbu escorting him looked over but he just waved her off saying that it had to do with the original's fight. The Anbu nodded before the two entered the tower and headed to the Hokage's office.

Tsunade looked up from her desk when she heard knocking at her door and said "Enter."

Her eyes widened seeing her blond student being escorted in beside an Anbu and said "Naruto? What are you doing here? Your team shouldn't be back for another four days."

The clone shook his head and said "Their not, I'm a shadow clone. The original and his teammates are taking care of a group of four sound nin that crossed the border and are trying to get to the village for some reason. They've already taken out one of the nin and are currently fighting another while the other two our on their way here. Their going to be in for a real surprise though when they run into the traps he had the other clones set up halfway between the border and here. I was sent here to get some backup incase they need help."

Tsunade's face took a hard look as she said "I see. Does Naruto know what they are after?"

The clone shook his head and said "I'm afraid not. The only thing he knows right now is that they are Orochimaru's body guard and that they have curse mark seals. Do you wish them to take one alive for interrogation?"

Tsunade considered before nodding and said "If at all possible then yes. Try to see if they can learn what they're after before then though."

The clone nodded and sent the message before cocking his head and said "Naruto says he'll do his best but right now he's got to squash a really big bug."

Tsunade rose an eyebrow and the clone decided to elaborate.

"He's fighting against a summoned spider."

Tsunade got an "oh" look before saying "I'll send Osprey here to get a backup team for you. Meet them at the gate and explain to them what's going on along the way. Can you leave another clone here to keep me updated?"

The clone took stock of his chakra and nodded saying "Since it's just going to act as a radio then yes."

Right after he said it, another clone appeared before the original clone gave a quick salute and took off towards the gate.

Tsunade turned to Osprey and said "Find Team 9 and tell them to get to the main gate ASAP."

The Anbu nodded before saluting and leaving as well.

Forest In The Land Of Fire

Matto and Heza winced when they saw their teammate hit the tree and the crack that formed afterwards. Naruto stood up and shook his head before he said "What the hell was that? He took my attack on his arm like it was an academy student's."

Kidomaru smirked and said "It's my special ability. You see my spider's silk has two versions. The regular kind that you're so fond of and my specialty. I can make it harder than steel and send it through the pores on my body. It's the ultimate defense!"

Matto rose an eyebrow from his perch on a nearby tree and said "Gotta hand it to the guy, that may be disgusting but it does sound handy."

Heza just smirked and said "Yeah well, we're just going to have to see how handy it really is."

Before anyone could ask what she meant, she dropped down from her branch going through hand signs on the way down. Finishing just as she landed she called out "Earth Style: Rock Skin Jutsu!" Heza's skin darkened before she rushed Kidomaru. As she drew close, the spider nin grinned and formed armor over his entire body. But to his shock, when Heza punched him it sent him flying with cracks appearing over his chest where she had punched him. (No it was not Tsunade's attack. It was more like Kakuzu's defense jutsu mixed in with Heza's normal strength from wearing so much weight.)

Kidomaru slammed into and then through a tree while Matto punched the air and said "Ha! Not much of a defense against earth style moves is it?"

Before Heza or Naruto could say anything to that, odd shaped throwing knives that were gold colored were launched at the trio who dodged the storm of weird kunai. The kunai kept coming boxing the three in until they were standing together.

Sudden laughter drew the three leaf nins' attention above them where they saw the spider nin standing over them on a tree. When they saw Kidomaru, he grinned before biting one of his thumbs and ran through hand signs while saying "Let's see your earth style jutsu do something about this! Summoning Jutsu!"

A poof of smoke later, the trio were looking up at a humongous spider that had three shivering in disgust at how ugly the giant arachnid was. They didn't have time to comment on it though when the spider opened a sack behind its legs and smaller spiders began falling towards the trio.

Naruto suddenly got the message from his clone talking to Tsunade and sent a quick reply before running through hand signs that he hadn't used in battle since the Chunnin exams.

"Wind Style: Grand Tornado Jutsu!"

A tornado appeared around Naruto and his teammates causing the two to raise their arms to shield their eyes from the wind before shooting up and out to swallow the spiders. The tornado began shredding into the spiders and the smaller ones began disappearing in clouds of smoke while the larger one began screeching in pain from all of the large cuts that were appearing all over its body. The summon finally couldn't take anymore thirty seconds later and vanished in a poof of smoke while Kidomaru cursed to himself and pulled back to get some distance for his next plan of attack.

As the winds from Naruto's jutsu died down, Matto and Heza lowered their arms and began looking for their target. Naruto meanwhile was doing the same by coordinating the five clones that had hung back into a search grid. Something told him it could take a while. Unfortunately, right now time was one thing that was not on their side.

Author's Notes: All right guys, I'm going to stop this here and give you guys the option of choosing the next step like one of those Goosebumps books. I have come up with two ways of squashing this spider. First option is like what Neji did and channeling chakra through a thread attached to the arrow. That was my original idea but to me sounds a little too much like what happened to Jirobo. Second option is that Naruto's clones locate Kidomaru and act as spotters for a long range archery attack by Heza where she uses a jutsu called Earth Style: Longbow Jutsu. Really unoriginal sounding I know but that is exactly what the jutsu is, a long bow that is highly accurate and shoots out arrows that are diamond tipped. Which ever gets the most 'votes' by Sunday night is the one I will go for. Until then see you later and again sorry for the wait. Only thing I can do as apology is finish this little 'arch' in the next one so expect closure next chapter.


	37. Tying up loose ends

37 Tying Up Loose Ends

Naruto and his teammates were currently in a back to back triangle formation as they scanned the forest trying to find their opponent while Naruto's five clones were running a search grid. All of a sudden Naruto caught a whistling sound with his heightened hearing.

Not taking any chances he called out "Break!" before jumping up and back from the formation while his two teammates rolled to the sides getting clear a split second before a golden arrow that looked like it could have been shot from a ballista's younger brother came at them at high speed before it embedded itself into the ground leaving a smoking crater.

Matto whistled from his crouched position and said "Now that's what I call death from above!"

Naruto saw Heza frowning while looking along the arrow's flight path as best she could before cautiously taking a step towards the five foot arrow. Getting close to it while keeping her senses peeled for a follow up attack, Heza studied the arrow and was able to see a chakra string before it disconnected.

"So that's how he did it." Heza mumbled to herself. Naruto and Matto heard her anyway.

"Did what Heza?" Matto asked while also looking through the forest in the direction the shot came from.

"He used a chakra thread to direct the path of the arrow so it wouldn't hit any branches on its way here which would have slowed it down. That's why it had so much piercing power."

Matto got an "oh" look on his face while he kept trying to spot their attacker.

As she said this Naruto directed his clones to start searching in a corridor search grid along a path starting one hundred feet from the arrow and heading away from the trio.

Five hundred yards away, Kidomaru was in his second curse seal form watching the three as they were looking towards him. He smirked before spitting out a blob of gold silk which hardened into another arrow that he nocked into the string of a six foot tall longbow that he drew back with his teeth.

Back with the Team 7, Naruto frowned before turning to Heza and said "How far can you shoot and still be at least ninety percent accurate?"

Heza cocked her head and said "I've got a jutsu that lets me shoot up to eight hundred yards before losing penetration, but I'm only good at six hundred so far and that's with a clear shot. I could still hit at that range here but I won't know where to shoot."

Naruto nodded before all three heard that whistling sound again and took cover behind the trees as another arrow landed right where Heza was a second ago.

As the smoke cleared, Matto shook his head when he saw the second arrow even further in the ground than the first and said "That guy doesn't play around does he?"

Naruto frowned and then grinned when his clones triangulated their opponent's position and told him where he was. Turning to Heza who was behind a tree to his left, he gestured for her to start her jutsu. Heza nodded and ran through a quick series of hand signs before softly calling out "Earth Style: Longbow Jutsu."

A small bump appeared on the ground in front of her before rising up from the ground revealing a five foot long bow made out of rock with a bow string made out of chakra. As Heza grabbed the bow, chakra converged on her back before turning into a quiver of diamond tipped arrows.

Heza drew and nocked an arrow before turning to Naruto and nodded.

Naruto nodded as well and sent a quick inquiry to his clones confirming the enemy's position. Getting final confirmation, Naruto said "Six O'clock. Two degrees towards Five. Forty six degrees high." (If anyone can come up with a better sighting I can change it but I can't think of how high Kidomaru would have to be to make his shots since they never said how tall the trees are.)

Heza nodded before taking a deep breath and spun around the tree. Taking a split second to correct her aim while she drew back the bow string, Heza let loose her arrow before ducking back to cover.

Kidomaru was just about to aim at Heza when he saw her let loose an arrow that came right at him at speeds that were just plain ridiculous for the normal arrow it looked like. By the time he could even think of moving, the arrow had already pierced a path of small holes through the branches in its way and pierced his head where his third eye that gave him increased accuracy was before shooting out of the other side of his head and continued on it's flight path.

Kidomaru dropped to the forest floor with a look of shock on his face as his curse seal withdrew for the final time. Fifteen seconds after he hit the ground, one of Naruto's clones cautiously approached the body and when he saw the hole nodded to himself before contacting the original.

"Kill confirmed."

Back with the trio, Naruto let out a relieved sigh before turning to Heza and said "You got him."

Heza nodded and dropped her jutsu causing the bow to fall apart into small rocks and her quiver of arrows to burst back into chakra which she drew back into herself. As soon as she was done, the trio headed to where Naruto's clones were gathering and examined the fallen nin.

Matto and Naruto whistled at the neat hole in Kidomaru's head while Heza looked quite pleased with herself. Naruto stepped over to the spider nin and took out the scroll that he had sealed Jirobo in. As the body disappeared into the scroll in a poof of smoke, Naruto stood up and turned to his teammates.

"Lets go."

Matto and Heza nodded as the group took off into the forest.

Scene Change: Hidden Leaf Village Main Gate

Naruto's clone was outside the village's main gate pacing as he waited for the backup the Hokage was sending.

'Although if things keep up as they do they won't be needed. With any luck they'll be stopped by those traps we set up at the halfway point. Maybe even sooner if we're really lucky.'

The clone was brought out of its musings by a loud voice.

"Hello there my youthful comrade! We have been assigned to provide youthful backup to you and your youthful teammates."

Twitching his eyebrow at how many times that cursed word was used just now, the clone turned around to see Team Gai standing behind him. He gave them a quick once over before jerking his head and turned towards the forest taking off.

Team Gai was slightly put off at the clone's actions but took off after him anyway. As they drew up alongside him, the clone began explaining to them.

"Team 7 is currently tracking a team of Sound nin that crossed the border. They've already taken out two of the Sound nin and are currently catching up to the other two. With any luck they'll be able to stop them from reaching the village without needing any help. Still, better safe than sorry since the group had been leaving one member to fight Team 7 every time they made contact. Right now the two are almost at the halfway point where some clones have set up traps. Our job is to provide what ever assistance they need. Lady Tsunade wants us to find out what they are after and to capture one of them alive if at all possible. Any questions?"

The four shook their heads before the clone nodded and increased his speed with the others following suit.

Scene Change: Halfway Point Between Border And Leaf Village

Sakon and Tayuya were just about halfway between the Land of Fire border and the Leaf Village. Both were getting nervous since neither of their teammates had caught up with them. They didn't have any longer to worry about it though as they passed a sensor seal that lit up sending a signal ahead of the two to a couple of boxy kunai launchers that were set up to fire a cross stream in front of them.

The two sound nin only heard a couple of clicks as warning before the batteries opened up shooting out continues streams of kunai in groups of ten at a rate of one kunai per second that were being supplied via storage seals that were positioned right below the ammo cartridges.

Their eyes widened as Tayuya shouted "Shit!" before the two dodged to either side to get away from the launchers' line of fire. However, as they moved out of the way, more sensor seals activated and the launchers swiveled to follow them. They kept dodging for about a minute before Sakon's already thin patience went up in smoke and he launched kunai of his own into the two launchers jamming them.

As Tayuya and Sakon let out sighs of relief, A clone that was nearby snickered to itself before raising it's right hand in a hand sign. More seals lit up all around the two completely surrounding them.

"Now what?" Tayuya barely managed to get out before the tags exploded sending out tons of kunai, shuriken, and senbon needles at the duo. As the storm of metal ended, it revealed two logs shredded beyond recognition.

The clone frowned before it suddenly disappeared in a poof of smoke due to the kunai in it's skull alerting the rest of the clones in the area that the duo was looking for them.

Tayuya scowled as she watched the smoke dissipate and Sakon pocketed the kunai he had used.

"That's how the mother fucker got out of Jirobo's jutsu. He had shadow clones out that took him out for the original."

Sakon hmmed before saying "Seems that way. He must have sent a few clones to set up those traps as soon as he received word of us. Come on, we don't have time for this. We have to get to the village as soon as possible. Make sure you don't trip any more traps and keep your eyes open for anymore clones. There's sure to be more around here somewhere."

Tayuya looked at him with a "no duh" look before the two cautiously made their way through the literal mine field around them.

Two hundred yards away at the end of the trap field, the clone that had took charge of this group of clones frowned before smirking and sending commands to his brethren. The clone then leaned against the tree he was in ready to enjoy the show.

Scene Change: With Team 7

Naruto rose his head before saying over his shoulder "They've reached the trap field. Looks like they slowed down so that they could avoid tripping the rest of the traps. Too bad the group leader there has other ideas. He's got some of the clones packing up the launcher traps that they've already passed so we can catch up faster while the rest are getting ready to ambush them."

The group nodded and kept going hoping to catch up quickly for the third and hopefully final fight.

Scene Change: Trap Field

Tayuya and Sakon were currently on the forest floor doing their best to avoid stepping on trip wires and explosion tags as they navigated the trap field. Tayuya was silently cursing up a storm under her breath at how many traps they had spotted so far, and that was only what they were able to spot so far. No telling how many traps were actually out there. And to make matters worse, they hadn't spotted a single clone beside the one Sakon had killed, and the need to know if there were anymore out there was driving the two nuts.

A clone watched from its hidden perch as Tayuya walked behind Sakon single file with about five feet between them. Grinning as Tayuya passed a trip wire that was tied to a group of kunai launchers that was both trip and chakra activated, the clone sent a focused chakra pulse towards the launchers.

Back with the duo, they suddenly heard a clicking sound causing their eyes to widen before kunai launched at them from the bushes around them causing the two to split up to avoid the kunai causing them to trip more and more traps that began launching even more kunai as well as activating exploding tags that did their best to blast the two sound nin sky high. The exploding tags activated even more tags that began detonating in ripple patterns from the initial blasts looking like a group of pebbles hitting a small pond with ripples heading out in multiple circles.

As the last explosions died down, ten clones who had been waiting nearby rushed to where the duo was before splitting up into two groups of five to find their prey. Outside of the trap field, the leader along with the rest of the clones formed a ring facing inward ready to intercept anyone trying to get out.

With Naruto

Naruto's group was two minutes from the trap field when they heard what sounded like thunder from up ahead. As the sound continued, Naruto was 'seeing' the trap field in real time as he kept half a mind on his surroundings and the other half looking through the leader's eyes. He saw the two search teams head off to find their targets before mentally nodding to himself.

He then checked on the clone with Team Gai noticing that at the speed they were traveling they would be at the trap field in a little under half an hour. Naruto mentally thanked Tsunade for sending a team that was used to high speed travel thanks to Gai and Lee's enthusiastic tendencies to race everywhere they went. Although with any luck things will be just about finished when they joined up with them.

With Sakon

Sakon was panting with rips all over his clothes and cuts along his arms and legs from where he wasn't fast enough to completely dodge the sharp pointy objects that had did their best to impale him. It didn't help that his ears were still ringing from all those explosions.

Sakon did his best to keep his senses peeled for any more traps where he was or for anyone about to ambush him. But with his ears ringing, he failed to hear the near perfect silent approach of the S&D team that was sent to find him.

Sakon had just finished catching his breath and was getting ready to try and get out of the hell hole he and Tayuya had found themselves in when he heard what seemed to be one voice coming from all around him.

"Wind Style: Raging Twister Jutsu!"

Right after he heard those words, five twisters appeared in a pentagram formation with five feet between each twister and the one on either side with Sakon in the middle. As soon as the twisters formed they closed in on Sakon who was trapped on all sides before slamming into him and forming into a single twister that was five times as large as the original lifting Sakon into the air and spinning him like a top. Sakon screamed in pain as the now full fledged tornado began adding even more cuts to his body. In the trees surrounding the tornado, the S&D team was holding their hands in the bird sign as they watched their combined jutsu do its work.

With Tayuya

Tayuya groaned from where she had landed on her back after the last explosion had sent her flying as she sat up and tried to get the ringing out of her ears by shaking her head. As the ringing finally left her ears, she heard a very faint rustling in the tree to her right. Tayuya spun around reaching into her weapon pouch before pulling out something that surprised the S&D team that was sent out to find her.

As Tayuya brought her flute to her lips, the leader narrowed his eyes as he realized what type of fighter his opponent seemed to be. Sending a mental warning of possible Genjustu coming into play, the clone prepared itself for anything.

Tayuya took a deep breath in before beginning to play. As she did, the five clones saw the world around them shift, spin, begin dripping, and just flat out fall apart. Each clone immediately made ram signs. But instead of sending out a chakra pulse like people normally would and possibly alerting their opponent that they could break out, the clones focused inward and began manipulating their chakra into raging storms. As soon as they did this, the world around them shattered revealing the real world.

Tayuya, unaware of her Genjutsu being broken, kept playing while preparing to add more layers to further entrap the clones who were keeping their chakra from settling down to prevent themselves from falling into any more Genjutsu. The leader sent a quick message to his group to hold position and let Tayuya run herself to the ground for easy capture. It was now a game of waiting to see who would be able to hold out the longest.

Two Minutes Later With Naruto

Team 7 along with the five clones that had been with them from the start came up to a stop at a part of the forest that looked like the next great shinobi war had broken out. Matto and Heza stared through the blackened trees that still had smoke blowing into the air from all of the fires that were slowly dieing down. Naruto meanwhile was getting a complete update via mental link with the clone in charge of the trap field.

After confirming where both of their targets were and what they were doing, Naruto turned to his teammates and said "We'll split up from here. Matto, I want you to take the clones from our group to where the two headed guy is. They'll lead you to him. He's currently trapped in a combined wind jutsu that a five man S&D team raised. See if you can get any info from him but make sure he doesn't try anything funny."

Matto nodded and the five clones took off with him following while Naruto turned to Heza and said "The girl is currently trying to use Genjutsu against the team sent after her. Doesn't seem like she can do much else. With any luck we can capture her and bring her back to the village for interrogation."

Heza nodded and the two took of to where the second team was.

With Matto

Matto and the five clones leading him came upon the unusual site of a tornado keeping the two headed man floating off the ground with five other clones keeping their hands in the bird sign maintaining the chakra flow for the jutsu. Sakon was a mess of cuts from where the wind jutsu had cut every inch of his body before switching from destruction to simple imprisonment. The nin looked to be unconscious although Matto couldn't be sure. Gesturing to the five that joined him to take positions next to the S&D squad to provide backup if needed, Matto stepped closer to the tornado stopping at five feet away and looked with narrowed eyes at the nin that was slowly turning inside of the funnel. After studying the nin for about half a minute, Matto gave a cutoff gesture with his hand. The clones holding the jutsu immediately dropped their hands causing the wind to dissipate and the Sound nin to drop unceremoniously to the ground.

Sakon groaned before looking up and his eyes widened and then narrowed as he spotted Matto. Matto squatted down so that he was closer to Sakon's level but still able to bolt if the nin tried anything.

Matto gave a small smile that sent shivers down Sakon's spine and lightning begin to spark in his right hand before saying "Why don't we have a little chat?"

(For those wondering, no Matto is not like Ibiki or Anko in personality. He's just drawing on what Kakashi taught them about interrogation since he had been a former Anbu captain.)

With Naruto and Heza

As Naruto and Heza drew close to their own target, They heard the sound of a flute being played and thier world begin spinning. The two formed the ram hand sign before softly saying "release" and continued without breaking stride through the trees. As they came up to the clones though, they heard something that they really weren't expecting: the sound of a tree falling. Looking at each other in question, the two increased their speed until they came upon a sight that was unusual to say the least.

The clones had scattered from where they had been hiding and were currently dodging three beings that could be best described as large ogres that were tearing the forest apart trying to hit them while Tayuya was standing still with her eyes roaming the forest around her with her flute never leaving her lips.

Catching sight of the original and Heza, Tayuya's eyes narrowed before all three ogres turned as one and launched themselves at the two. Naruto and Heza split up as they jumped to the sides with both running through hand signs. As soon as they touched down they called out their jutsu before launching them at the threat.

"Earth Style: Earth Spear Jutsu!"

"Fire Style: Grand Fireball Jutsu!"

A spear of rock shot out of the ground which Heza grabbed before hurling into the head of the closest ogre while Naruto spat out a large fireball that incinerated the other two.

The two thought it was over for the ogres and so were surprised when the ogres came out of the flames and did their best to turn Naruto into paste as he dodged while the other simply reached up and yanked the spear out of its head before swinging it like a club at Heza who quickly jumped away to avoid being hit.

"OK, this is new!" Heza called as she ducked under another of the Ogre's swing before jumping up into a branch of a nearby tree. She had to jump again as soon as she landed when the ogre swung the spear against the tree causing it to fall.

Tayuya smirked before it was wiped off of her face by Naruto's next actions.

Deciding that enough was enough, Naruto sheathed himself in his wind shield before launching himself right into one of the ogre's chest and shot straight out of the other side. The ogre disappeared in a poof of smoke as Naruto landed in front of the other one and swung his right leg bisecting the ugly brute causing it to disappear as well. Turning to Heza's ogre, Naruto ran through hand signs before calling his jutsu.

"Earth Style: Iron Maiden Jutsu!"

As soon as the words left the blonde's mouth, two slabs of rock shot up on either side of the ogre. Spikes shot out of the two slabs impaling the ogre before they slammed shut together instantly crushing the ogre. The jutsu took no more than three seconds from start to finish and by the time the two Leaf nin had turned their attention back to Tayuya she was visibly shaken at how her summons were destroyed so quickly.

Tayuya's eyes narrowed before she said "Let's see you pieces of shit deal with this!"

Naruto and Heza braced themselves for anything but before they could do anything more than slide into quick stances, marks spread out from her neck before her body transformed. Her skin darkened into a muddy brown while her eyes turned black with yellow pupils. Finally, three horns sprouted from her head before curling forward to form a type of crown around her head.

Naruto and Heza stared at Tayuya who growled before recklessly launching herself at Heza. Heza ducked under Tayuya's sloppy punch before hitting a pressure point on her neck causing the redhead to drop like a sack of potatoes. As the marks receded, Naruto shook his head as he walked over.

"Not very good at Taijutsu was she?"

Heza shook her head as well as the clones came down from where they had hung back to let the original and his teammate handle the situation. As they came over, Naruto took out a blank scroll and quickly began writing on it. As soon as he was done, Naruto sent the unconscious sound nin into the newly made stasis seal before standing up.

Turning to where he knew Matto still was, he said "Come on, let's see what Matto found out."

Heza nodded and followed the blond as the clones fell in behind the two.

With Matto

Matto was currently trying to get their prisoner to loosen his tongue without much luck. Sakon apparently had high pain tolerance levels and wasn't saying anything besides the taunt or two about how Matto was an amateur.

Ten minutes later Naruto and Heza walked up to him as the clones joined their brethren. As Sakon saw them his eyes widened slightly before narrowing.

"I don't know what happened to Tayuya and I don't care. I highly doubt you got anything from her and you sure as hell ain't getting anything from me!"

Naruto just rose an eyebrow before saying "Really? Well even if we don't get anything, I'm sure the guys at the T&I well get plenty from you. Ibiki and Anko have ways of getting people to talk. They've turned what they do into an art form."

As he said the last part, Naruto got an evil smile that had Sakon afraid of seeing this so called 'art.' Before he could say anything though, Naruto gestured to a clone who took out a senbon needle and shot it right at the sound nins neck.

As Sakon fell to the ground unconscious Naruto shook his head before thinking to himself 'Gotta thank Haku for teaching me how to do that properly.'

Naruto stepped over to the body and made another stasis seal and sealed the nin away. Once he was done, he got up and started heading towards Team Gai with his teammates falling in with the clones dispelling themselves followed by all of the other clones in the area.

With Team Gai

The shadow clone slowed down its pace to a more leisurely one as it received the memories from the rest of the clones. Noticing the drop in speed, Team Gai followed suit.

"What is it my most youthful comrade?" Gai asked from his position besides the clone.

"Team 7 just finished dealing with the last enemy ninja and are currently heading towards us. They'll get here soon enough so there's no reason to keep running like we were."

The team nodded at the clone's words but were all disappointed on the inside that they hadn't had a chance at some of the action.

Hokage Tower

The clone gave a soft sigh from the seat it was in before raising its head to look at Tsunade who had looked up from her paperwork when she heard the sigh.

"Interception of all intruding nin successful. Team 7 was able to capture the last two intruders and are currently transporting them in a stasis storage scroll. They will hook up with Team Gai in three minutes and are heading on in. The other team you sent to the border as their replacement should be there by the end of the day."

Tsunade nodded before asking what was really bugging her.

"Did they find out what they were after?"

The clone slowly shook his head.

"Unfortunately not ma'am. But I'm sure Ibiki will."

The older blond nodded at this before lowering her head again and went back to her paperwork.

Author's Notes: Hey guys, hope you liked this one. I did my best to make this realistic enough. And before you say anything about Tayuya flipping out before Heza dropped her like a rock, look at it from this point of view. Her Genjutsu wasn't working and Naruto shredded her ogres. Add to the fact that she had almost constantly been on the run for the day I think she would have gotten really pissed and just throw all caution out the window and try to use the curse seal to power her way through them. Also, no asking what about Ukon, I promise there is a reason he didn't do anything this chapter.


	38. Strike Against The Sound Part One

38 Strike Against The Sound Part One

Hidden Leaf Village: Main Gate

Teams 7 & Gai came upon the main gates of the village around ten o'clock. Standing at the sign in post was Tsunade with Ibiki and Naruto's shadow clone standing on either side. The clone dispelled itself while Naruto and Gai walked over and Heza and Neji signed in their teams.

When Naruto and Gai were in front of her, Tsunade began speaking.

"You and your team did a good job taking care of the intruders Naruto."

Naruto gave a slight nod before saying "Thank you Lady Hokage. I apologize for not getting the information you wanted before returning here."

Tsunade waved the statement away before saying "It's not a problem. Ibiki will be able to pull the Intel from the prisoners no matter how long they hold out."

Naruto nodded and pulled out two scrolls handing one to Ibiki and another to Tsunade while saying "I thought you would want some of the medics to do autopsies on the two we killed so I sealed them as well."

Tsunade nodded as she pocketed the scroll before speaking to both leaders.

"Well done you two. You and your teams are dismissed. Naruto, you guys had a bit of a rough day today. I recommend you and your team get some sleep as soon as possible."

Naruto nodded and both team leaders walked past her with their teams falling in behind them.

As the teams passed her, she turned to Ibiki and said "I want to know everything those two know about their mission and the Sound village. The sooner the better."

Ibiki nodded before shunshining away. Tsunade stayed at the gate for another minute thinking before she shunshined away as well.

Scene Change: T&I Headquarters: Interrogation Cell Time: 2030 Hours

Ibiki was currently in a room looking through a one way window into another room where a couple of interrogators were getting the two headed sound nin ready for his session. Standing next to him was Inoichi Yamanaka.

The two got a shock as while one of the interrogators was strapping Sakon's arms down a hand came out of his arm and latched onto the surprised mans wrist pulling him down while another arm wrapped around his neck.

Ibiki and Inoichi's eyes widened as Sakon's second head lifted up and glared at the second interrogator who was doing his best to get his coworker free.

They got an even bigger shock as the rest of a body seemed to phase out of his body and kick the second interrogator away before placing his free arm around the first man's head.

But before he could snap the man's neck, Inoichi activated a Yamanaka clan technique that caused the sound nin to fall unconscious. An instant later Ibiki burst into the room and walked over to the would be victim who was holding a hand to his neck and panting.

Inoichi walked into the room at a more relaxed pace and headed over to the now two unconscious ound nins and began studying the second body.

Looking up from where he had been crouching, Inoichi said "Well that was something new." before gesturing to the second interrogator to give him a hand with the body on the floor. Lifting the body up, the two then proceeded to bring the man into the interrogation room across the hall from the one currently in use.

Ibiki and the other interrogator finished strapping Sakon to the chair while Inoichi was doing this and when everything was ready Ibiki pulled out a smelling salt stick and held it under the Sound nin's nose.

As Sakon groaned before opening his eyes, Ibiki got a sadistic smile and said "Now then, let's get started."

Down the hallway, Anko was standing behind another team of two interrogators who had just finished strapping their own prisoner into the chair. As the two interrogators left to go into the room connected to the cell, Anko pulled out a stick of smelling salt and held it under the prisoner's nose.

Tayuya's eyes opened and she looked around before spotting Anko.

Her eyes narrowed before she said "Who the hell are you and where the fuck am I?"

Anko got a predator's grin on her face and said "We are at the lovely hotel known as the Torture and Interrogator's department of the Hidden Leaf Village and I'll be your host for the night."

Scene Change: Naruto's Apartment

It was about eight in the morning and Naruto was currently in his apartment reading the rest of the scrolls Tsunade had given him with a few shadow clones helping him.

Naruto suddenly sensed a chakra presence coming up to his apartment door before whoever it was knocked on the door. Setting down the scroll he was reading, Naruto walked over to the door and opened it to reveal a Chunnin standing at the door.

As soon as the door was open the Chunnin said "Uzumaki, the Hokage requests your presence in a meeting at the Jounin assembly hall in one hour."

Naruto rose an eyebrow before nodding and saying that he would be there. The Chunnin then nodded as well before taking off to take care of other business. As Naruto closed his apartment's door and headed back to his scroll, he wondered why the Hokage would want him present at what was most likely a Jounin only meeting.

Scene Change: Jounin Assembly Hall: 0900 Hours

Naruto walked into the assembly hall and noted that what seemed to be half of the Leaf's total number of Jounin seemed to be present. Looking around, Naruto spotted Kakashi's silver hair close to the front of the room and went over to him while the Jounin he passed began whispering wondering what the blond was doing there. Naruto silently asked himself that question again as well as he walked through the room.

Stepping up to his teacher's side, he asked him if he had any idea what was going on. Kakashi simply shrugged before going back to his book causing Naruto to sigh and resign himself to just waiting for the meeting to get started to learn what was going on.

Two minutes later, a side door opened and Tsunade entered with Sarutobi and Jiraiya walking in behind her. Seeing her, the group of Jounin went into attention stances with Naruto mimicking their actions. Tsunade nodded to them before giving an at ease signal causing them to go into parade rest. Deciding to not beat around the bush, Tsunade began the meeting.

"Yesterday a team on border patrol intercepted a four man intrusion team sent by Sound. While two of them were killed the team was able to capture the other two for interrogation. We have learned that their mission had been a retrieval mission of sorts. Their objective was to escort Sasuke Uchiha to the Sound village, under his free will or not."

Several of the Jounin began muttering to themselves while Kakashi and Naruto's eyes narrowed at this statement. Tsunade quickly regained order before continuing.

"Thanks to Ibiki and the rest of the T&I division, we now know where the exact location of the base that the Sound used for their invasion rally point is and a general layout as well. We also now know that this is the best time to launch an attack due to the fact that it seems Orochimaru's body is currently rejecting him which we believe is the reason why he sent a team after the Uchiha. Due to the fact that we do not know how much time we have until Orochimaru is forced to switch bodies, we will be sending teams out around 1300 hours to take over the Sound base and with luck, be able to end the threat that Orochimaru poses to this village. It is for this reason that we need twenty five to thirty five volunteers to form a task force under Sarutobi-sensei's command while the rest stay to maintain village security. Jiraiya will be his second in command, while Naruto Uzumaki will be in charge of communications between the teams with his shadow clones. Anyone who wants to be a part of this mission please raise your hand now."

Hands rose in the air as thirty Jounin showed they were willing to do what was necessary to keep their village safe. Among the hands were Kakashi, Gai, Asuma, Kurenai, Hayate and Genma.

Tsunade surveyed who was staying and who would be going before nodding to herself and said "Those who are staying in the village are dismissed. Those going stay and we'll go over the plans."

Scene Change: Village Main Gates: 1255 Hours

Naruto was currently waiting at the village's main gate next to a group of Jounin who were doing last minute checks on their gear while they waited for the last few members including Sarutobi and Jiraiya. As they made sure they had enough water and food, Naruto was going over a list of his own.

'Let's see, exploding notes with five different levels of range and power, ten each, check. Thirty kunai launching trap seals, check. Fox and Toad swords in their seals, check. Fifteen soldier pills, check. Top five antidotes most likely needed, check. Bandages and Hinata's special healing cream, check Water, check. Food, check. Five spools of ninja wire, check. Ink, brush and blank sealing paper, check. Well, that should be everything.'

As Naruto finished going over what he had packed, the last few Jounin showed up with Sarutobi and Jiraiya following. Sarutobi and Jiraiya walked to the front of the group of ninjas and took off into the forest with the rest quickly following. Naruto took a quick look back at the village before jumping after them. The counter attack against the Hidden Sound Village was about to begin.

Scene Change: Valley of the End

The task force of thirty three shinobi was taking a quick break at the halfway point on their journey to the Sound. The leaf ninja were currently standing on a cliff face that had the first Hokage carved into it. Facing the enormous carving on the other side of the valley was a carving of the founder of the Uchiha. Between the two was a waterfall that was roaring as it fell forming a river throughout the rest of the valley.

Naruto stood on the head of the First while studying the valley and paying special attention to the statue in front of him.

"**It's been a long time since the last time I was here. I must admit that the name is an appropriate one for this place. Although not everything that happened here was an end."**

Naruto rose an eyebrow at his father's statement before asking 'What do you mean?'

"**While it is true this was the site of Hoshirama and Madara's last fight, and where they ended their friendship, not everything that happened at this spot was actually finished here. In truth a good deal of things had also began here. Take the valley itself for instance. Before those two fought, this valley had been a small plain with a few trees in it. The battle between those two had been so great that it actually reshaped the very land they were fighting on. This was also where Hoshirama's wife, Mito Uzumaki, your great-grandmother, began her life as a Jinchuriki when she sealed me into herself. This is also where Madara first began planning his revenge against not only the Senju clan but also the Village Hidden in the Leaves. These and more brought a new era upon the world affecting almost everything that has happened to the ninja world to this day in one way or another."**

Kyubi fell silent and Naruto took another look around the valley as he thought about what his father had said.

"Penny for your thoughts."

Naruto turned around to see Sarutobi standing behind him with that grandfatherly smile of his.

Naruto smiled as well before saying "Just thinking about what happened here."

Sarutobi nodded before saying "A lot to think about then."

Naruto hmmed before the old man turned around and said "All right gentlemen, break time's over!"

Naruto caught the annoyed looks that Kurenai and the other few female Jounin shot the old man and chuckled before launching himself across the valley and landed on Madara's head waiting for Kakashi to join him before taking off into the forest.

Author's Notes: Hey guys, I know you will probably be disappointed with the length of this chapter and how long it took. I have no excuses and plan to do a much longer one soon.


	39. Strike Against The Sound Part Two

39 Strike Against The Sound Part Two

Ten Miles Out From Sound Base

Even with keeping its speed down to conserve energy for the fight that was ahead, the task force had made good time on their journey and was expecting to be at the hidden sound base within the hour.

All of a sudden Naruto jerked his head up before saying "Everybody stop!"

All of the members of the task force who had heard the blonde speak landed on branches and the clones who were now traveling among the groups as radios and backup gave the order as well to the other groups.

While everyone was looking at Naruto curiously, it was Sarutobi who asked him what was wrong.

"What is it Naruto?"

Naruto concentrated before saying "As you know I sent a few recon clones ahead of us." Seeing Sarutobi's nod he continued "They just spotted someone traveling from the direction of the base and that person is coming our way at high speed. What's worse, and you're going to think I'm crazy, but the guy seems to be a Kaguya."

"Oh that's not good." Asuma said as Sarutobi and Jiraiya frowned.

"But I heard those guys were all wiped out when they attacked the Hidden Mist Village. Are you sure it was a Kaguya?" Jiraiya asked with a worried look.

"Positive. The guy had the two red dots on his head and everything. And to make things even worse for us is the fact that my clones spotted what looked like a curse mark on his chest."

"Great. Things just keep getting better and better don't they? What should we do Pops?" Asuma said turning to his father as he spoke.

Sarutobi's frown grew as he thought before asking "Do you think he knows about the task force Naruto?"

Naruto frowned before saying "Doubtful. The Kaguyas were blood thirsty but I doubt this guy is stupid enough to take on thirty Jounin by himself. Especially if they know you and Pervy Sage are with them."

Ignoring the Pervy Sage comment for the moment, Jiraiya added his two cents in. "The kid's right Sensei. For all we know this guy could be going to see what's taking the first four so long in bringing back the Uchiha kid."

"That certainly is a possibility." Sarutobi allowed before turning back to Naruto. "How long till he reaches us?"

Naruto consulted with his recon clones for a moment before saying "Fifteen minutes at the most with how fast he's traveling. The guy's running like he's got the Shinigami himself on his heels."

Sarutobi hmmed before saying "Regardless of what his mission is, we can't let this man discover the task force. We're going to have to take him out but the longer it takes the more likely we'll be found anyway. Hm, Naruto, didn't you tell me once that there was an assassin's group in the fox clan?"

Naruto nodded and said "Yeah there is. Want me to summon them?"

Sarutobi nodded and Naruto hopped down to the forest floor with the other members of their small group joining them.

Landing, Naruto bit his thumb and ran through the familiar hand signs before slamming his palm down on the ground. The resulting smoke cleared revealing a group of five foxes that were various sizes from a regular sized fox to one who came up to Naruto's waist when standing. Each fox had a small poisoned dagger strapped to them as well as seals hidden by their fur which held a number of other weapons of their trade.

The foxes looked around before the smallest of the five came forward and said "I must admit this is a surprise Naruto. You do not usually summon us except to train with us."

Naruto nodded and said "We've got a bit of a problem that requires you and your comrades' skills Eztair. I'm part of a task force that's about to attack a Sound base about ten miles from here. But some of my recon clones have spotted a Kaguya coming from the direction of the base and we can't let him alert the base to our presence."

The fox nodded and said "A Kaguya you say? Hm, no wonder you want our help if you don't want to cause a ruckus. Though I thought they were all wiped out? Oh well, just tell us where we can find him and we'll take care of him for you."

Naruto nodded and gave him the necessary information before the five foxes took off at speeds that rivaled Lee and Gai's when they opened their gates.

Two minutes later, the Kaguya was running through the forest at his top speed willing to complete one last task for his master before he died.

'Those four will be in big trouble when I find them. It has taken them far too long to bring Lord Orochimaru's next vessel. I may die after I finish what they started but it will be worth it if it helps Lord Orochimaru in succeeding in his plans.'

All of a sudden the runner felt a series of stinging pains as five blurs that the man could barely see shot out from the surrounding forest and went past him.

The man looked down at the five cuts that ran across his legs. But before he could wonder what happened his body seized up before going into spasms for a couple of seconds. From the trees nearby, the five foxes watched as the quick acting neurotoxin that was on the foxes daggers quickly ended his life.

As the man's body stopped twitching, the largest fox stepped up to the body and poured chakra into its tail before cutting the Kaguya's head off with it and placed the head in one of the seals on it's body as another fox came up and incinerated the body with a blue flame that left nothing of the body but ashes in a matter of seconds.

Seeing that the body was properly disposed of, the group of five foxes quickly left to inform their summoner of their completed mission.

Back with the task force, the leaf nins were currently waiting in various states of unease for word on if the assassins had succeeded. Naruto was the most relaxed since he knew what the group was capable of while the rest were wondering if they could handle the member of the infamous Kaguya clan. Even Jiraiya and Sarutobi were slightly nervous as they waited.

That all changed a few minutes earlier as the foxes walked over to where Naruto was.

As the Eztair reached Naruto he said "Target neutralized sir. As per SOP the head was collected and the body incinerated."

At Eztair's words, Naruto nodded and the fox that had sealed the Kaguya's head stepped forward and unsealed the head which Naruto resealed inside of one of his own scrolls. As this was going on, Sarutobi was looking thoughtfully at the foxes before he decided to ask something that he just thought of.

"Excuse me Eztair, (when said fox looked at him, he continued) do you think you and the rest of your group could join us on our operation? It would be greatly appreciated if you would lend us your talents."

Eztair glanced over at Naruto who gave an "It's your call" gesture before turning back and nodding before saying "As you wish sir. Just tell us what you need us to do and we'll pass through your enemies like the wraiths of old."

Author's Notes: That's all for now. I really should have included this in the previous chapter but I had been trying to figure out how to deal with Kimimaro. The reason why I am not going to go further on this chapter is that I would like to know if any of you have any ideas on what the task force should find when they reach the base. This includes not only experiments that were failed or in progress but also enemies that they will fight, experimented on or not. Any way, R&R as always please. Also, expect some work on Sensors for those who took a liking to the little bit I already did and maybe an update to Prince as well.


	40. Strike Against The Sound Part Three

40. Strike Against The Sound Part 3

After the Kaguya had been taken care of, the task force ran into no further trouble and were soon had the sound base entrance in sight. As the groups spread out into a semicircle surrounding the base the assassin squad got ready to take care of the two guards standing on top of the stairs.

With Naruto's group, two foxes poured chakra into the tails causing the fur on them to stand up on end with each hair arcing out like a porcupines quill. The two foxes then spun their tails in a full circle unleashing five of the hairs which flew at the guards like Frisbees before going through the foreheads and out the other side. The guards dropped to the floor like puppets with their strings cut, their brains shredded by one of the thinnest things seen by the naked eye.

Sarutobi nodded to Naruto's clone that was acting as the groups radio to free up the original who nodded as well before sending out the message to all the other clones to move out. Eztair then nodded to his squad who nodded as well before splitting up to join with the other groups as support with Eztair staying next to the original.

The outward groups moved to areas above the base that were mapped out by the living members of the Sound Four as storage areas and sank through the ground using earth style justu to reach them without leaving a trace of their passage while the foxes fazed through with a similar assassin jutsu. Once there, they headed to their objectives taking out anyone they came across.

The two remaining groups then headed to the stairs and began descending to complete their own objectives.

Naruto's POV

I frowned when no one came to check on the two guards after Eztair and another one of the fox assassins had killed them. Eztair frowned as well and I could hear him muttering about there being no guards near the bottom to come check that the foxes could deal with in a similar manner. Something about security not being worth guarding a donut shop.

The old man then nodded to my clone that was to act as our group's radio who nodded back. I 'heard' him send the message to the other clones and then sent the part that monitored the link between me and the clones to the back of my mind. Our clone would tell me if anything came up over the link that I needed to know. Right now I had more important things to focus on.

I sensed the four outer groups taking off to their insertion points while my group and the group next to us sprinted as quickly and stealthily as we could to the stairs taking positions where we wouldn't be seen on each side of the staircase by anyone coming up close to the entrance of the base.

Sarutobi than looked across the staircase at the other team where Jiraiya-sensei was and flashed through a sequence of battle code hand signs. Jiraiya-sensei nodded and gave a signal of his own to his group before they dropped down in a crouch and entered the building.

Sarutobi held his hand up for a minute telling us to hold before the clone received a radio message and nodded to him. Sarutobi dropped his hand and we dropped down as well before heading into the base our selves.

The base was dark and gave most of us the creeps. Personally it reminded me a little of my mindscape before I had changed it after the invasion to resemble the forest behind the Hokage Monument.

There was two main branches fifty feet from the entrance. The clone signed to Sarutobi that Jiraiya had taken the left as ordered to which the old man nodded.

Eztair suddenly stiffened as he looked for targets by breathing through his nose. Me and Kakashi-sensei noticed and did the same. The other two Jounin and Sarutobi watched us as we tried to find what had stirred Eztair up so bad. The scents that came to our noses confused me. I smelled death and decay which I kind of expected considering who we were dealing with. But there was another scent that really threw me for a loop. I smelled some kind of leather hide and some kind of plain as well as ivory.

Everyone noticed our confusion but turned to Eztair when he began swishing his tail in Morse Code. The answer did not make us comfortable. Rhino. Either someone had been rhino hunting and kept the skin and horn, or there was a summoner somewhere in this base.

Sarutobi signed to us to be on extra guard and then proceeded down the hall way to the main lab that was the main item on our little shopping list. As we made our way to the lab, we checked each room we passed to be sure there was no one waiting to ambush us as we passed. Most of the rooms were empty giving me an uneasy feeling while some of them made me wish they were empty.

One such room held a cage about half as big as the room filled with people who looked like they had been through various medical procedures that looked more like torture than healing before being put out of their misery. Arms were sewn into one man's chest reminding me of the second nin that had tried to infiltrate the village. Only difference was that it had seemed somewhat natural on him while this man looked like his body had tried to reject the extra appendages. Another prisoner, a woman, appeared to have what looked like gills sewn into her neck. Again like the man, her body looked like it had rejected the grafts. These and many more apparently failed experiments were lying around with blood leaking from the wounds where their lives were ended by kunai.

As we exited the room back into the hallway, I gave an involuntary shudder as I closed the door. The clone was leaning against one of the walls looking a little green. And I couldn't blame it. Even now it was receiving updates and I was sure that had not been the only room that held people that had been experimented on in them.

A sudden thought came to my head and I shuddered again. What if that rhino scent wasn't a trophy or summoner who spent a lot of time around his summons?

I shook the notion from my head telling myself we would deal with it when the time came. If anyone noticed my actions, they didn't make any action showing they did before we continued down the hall staying alert for any traps.

We found a few smaller labs that thankfully had no one strapped into any of the operating tables that were found in some of them. Phials of strange mixtures were in some of them and I swear some of them even glowed a little. Sarutobi had me make more clones and give them the materials needed to make proper sealing scrolls for the stuff.

Further down the hall we found a room that looked like an archive room. Knowing what was expected of me now, I made more clones and released them on the file cabinets. Sarutobi made some clones as well to join in, probably to supervise and know first hand what his old student had been at.

As we exited the archive room the feeling that I had from not encountering anyone got much worse and I signed over at Kakashi-sensei to see if he had the feeling as well. He did. And it really didn't help that when I checked with the clone that there was little to no one encountered by the other groups. And the people the other groups did run into weren't higher than low Chunnin. Just where the hell was everyone?

Regular POV

Naruto's unease kept growing as they continued toward the main lab. He wasn't the only one as Sarutobi, Kakashi, and the other three Jounin were getting nervous as well as the lack of enemies and any serious traps in the area had them all on edge.

It was a sick sense of relief that passed over Naruto as they finally came outside of the main lab where Naruto could sense the presence of at least one Jounin and a large number of mid to high Chunnin waiting for them in the large room. Raising his hand to get his comrades' attention, Naruto focused his senses even more by using earth manipulation to read vibrations and signed out in battle code what he was feeling on the other side of the steel door.

By his side, Eztair was beginning to get the slightest bit twitchy from anticipation as the scent of so many people in the next room and particularly the rhino scent was coming really strong from the filtered air space above the door. Naruto gave him a questioning look after he finished signing what he could tell about the other side of the door and Eztair signed to him saying he was fine, just ready to finally find out what was causing that rhino scent.

Naruto gave him a knowing nod before Sarutobi signed out what he wanted from everyone in the group.

Naruto got into position with his hand on the door knob. With one last nod from his former leader, Naruto yanked the door open and Kakashi and the other two Jounin threw in smoke bombs while Eztair darted in ready to take out whoever he could in the ensuing chaos. The others went in right after him with the clone and Naruto hanging back as support.

There was a yipping sound just before the smoke cleared revealing a large man holding Eztair up by the scruff of his neck with five of the other sound nin on the floor already dead. A group of twenty other ninja were in the large room with the tables all up against one side of the wall and an empty tube that could easily hold a person in the center.

The man sneered at the leaf nins and said "Well now, isn't this a pleasant surprise. I know that Lord Orochimaru told me to expect some visitors before he left, but I would never have thought that I would have the Third Hokage as one. I feel so honored! And to top it all off I get to have a new fox rug as well!"

Naruto's eyes hardened and Kyubi began growling as he said in a tone that Kakashi recognized as his most dangerous. "Let him go."

The man gave a big belly laugh before saying "Let him go? Oh I don't think so! You are in no position to be making demands brat!"

Naruto growled before a cloak of red chakra suddenly surrounded him. Before anyone could say anything from their surprise, Naruto's elbow was in the man's face as he grabbed Eztair before getting clear and back to the Leaf side.

The large man slammed into the far wall while Naruto set Eztair down. As the man rose back to his feet he snarled out "That does it! I'm going to turn you into a pancake! Summoning Jutsu!"

As the man slammed down his hand onto the floor, a giant smoke cloud appeared. When it dispersed a rhino was standing next to him.

'So that's why we smelled rhino.' Naruto thought to himself before the man sent a command to his summon and it charged at Naruto. Naruto simply shook his head before he called on more of Kyubi's chakra giving him a tail and a pair of ears to the cloak.

The Chunnin scattered as the rhino shot past them and lowered it's horn ready to impale the blond standing in front of him. Just as it was about to do so, Naruto grabbed the horn with both hands with his hands on their opposite sides before twisting them around and to the side.

The rhino's eyes widened as it was sent rolling into a wall which crumbled inwards from the force of the blow. The rhino shook it's head, groggy from it's spin. But before it could get to its feet again, Eztair rushed it before stabbing it in the head with his tail. The rhino then poofed out of existence while the large man stared at shock at what had happened. The Chunnin weren't doing much better. The man than seemed to come to his senses and he screamed out "Kill them!" before rushing the Leaf nin.

Sarutobi was the first to respond by rushing the big man with a kunai shrouded in wind chakra and decapitating the man before stepping towards the Chunnin that were trying their best to kill the old man. Kakashi was right after him as his hands lit up in lightning as he activated his original technique and began tearing through the Chunnin. The others joined in with kunai as well while Naruto hung back and used his extended chakra claws to tear through the enemies with Eztair darting between everyone and taking shots wherever he was needed.

Less than ten minutes later all of the enemy Sound nin were lying dead on the floor while the Leaf Jounin only had a few cuts and bruises. The lab unfortunately was a mess with the tube shattered beyond recognition and papers scattered everywhere as well as one of the tables broken. Sarutobi gave a command and Kakashi and Naruto created some shadow clones which began to pick up everything that was salvageable alongside some clones that Sarutobi had also made. As this was going on Naruto and Kakashi themselves were sealing away the bodies as the other two Jounin gave them a hand.

As Naruto sealed away the last nin, he shook his head and said "That was too easy."

Kakashi nodded but it was Sarutobi who responded "Indeed it was. I imagine the other groups had the same ease in accomplishing their objectives as well. Orochimaru knew we were coming. He must have left only a ragtag group of men behind for us and taken everyone and everything else of major importance away. It wouldn't surprise me if most of the stuff we found was planted for us to find. And while I'm sure some of it's real, there's no telling what is and what is simply a trap waiting for us. Not right now anyways."

Naruto and the others nodded before they left the main lab and exited the base with Naruto and his clones among the other groups leaving enough paper bombs in the place to completely remove any possibility of the place ever being used again.

Author's Notes: Sorry to everyone if this chapter is a little disappointing. I could get it out quite the way I had pictured it.


	41. Political AlliancesHeading Out To Sea

41. Political Alliances/Heading Out To Sea Country

It was the morning after the raid against the Sound Base when a Hyuga Branch Member knocked on Naruto's door.

Naruto looked up from the last scroll of the set Tsunade had given him that he had finally been able to start reading and actually understand what it was talking about. That was the problem with using shadow clones to read things in a set. You could read everything at once but half the time you didn't understand everything until you reread or at least skimed over everything at least once. Frowning over how often someone knocking on his door during the morning was becoming, Naruto set the scroll down with a sigh before getting up from his seat and heading to the door.

Expecting a Chunnin messenger, Naruto was surprised to see a Hyuga Branch Member.

The Hyuga gave a short bow before saying "Uzumaki-san, Hiashi-sama requests your presence at your earliest convenience."

'Translation: Hiashi wants to talk to me right away.' Naruto thought mentally translating the older language of extreme formality that all Hyugas except his girlfriend seemed to have been taught to use at all times.

Nodding Naruto said "Please inform Hiashi-sama that I will be there within the hour."

The Branch Member gave another short bow before leaving. Naruto closed his door and went into his room in order to change from his casual wear into his ninja outfit which was the most acceptable clothes he had to meet the head of one of the lead clans in.

Thirty minutes later Naruto arrived at the Hyuga compound where he was escorted to the clan head's office by one of the guards.

After receiving an "enter" from the occupant of the office, Naruto took a deep breath before opening the door.

As Naruto entered, he took notice of the room he was in. As fitting for such an important clan, the room was a bit large with paintings and other decorations among the walls and shelves. Near the end was a low desk which had a pillow behind it for the clan head to sit at and three pillows in front for visitors.

Hiashi was currently behind the desk working on some papers before looking up and said "Welcome Uzumaki-san. Thank you for coming so soon. Please have a seat."

Naruto bowed before taking a seat on one of the pillows. Hiashi looked down for a minute as he finished whatever clan papers were on his desk before he moved them to the side and leaned back into a more upright position as he studied the blond in front of him.

After a minute of studying him, Hiashi decided to not beat around the bush with the straight-forward ninja in front of him and said "I'm afraid I have a bit of a dilemma Uzumaki-san. As you should know, my eldest daughter has become a fine example of what every kunoichi should strive for. The same could also be said about her status as clan heir. However, in their infinite wisdom, the clan elders have decided that it would be best to strengthen the clan's political standing and marry her off to one of the Daimyo's cousins. They believe that my eldest daughter would better serve the clan in the Daimyo's court and that my youngest should be named clan heir."

Naruto frowned at what he was hearing. He could hear the smallest trace of sarcasm as the Hyuga head said infinite wisdom and knew that the stoic man in front of him was royally pissed with the elders.

Deciding to play things safe, Naruto thought for a moment choosing his wording carefully and said "I take it you do not agree to this plan of action Hiashi-sama?"

Hiashi nodded and said "That is correct Uzumaki-san. I believe my eldest daughter is just the type of clan heir that will bring the Hyuga clan into much needed unity. To be perfectly honest I imagine the Elders know this and wish for the clan to remain the same as it is. They have been quite adamant on her being married off. Not only that, they have practically demanded that she stop seeing you saying that she is sullying the Hyuga clan by being in a relationship with an orphan."

Naruto frowned as he read between the lines of what the elders really thought about him and said "I see. If I may ask Hiashi-sama, what do you require of me?"

Hiashi let a small smile cross his face for a brief moment as he thought 'As sharp as his parents this one.'

Putting his mask back in place, Hiashi said "As I have said, the elders refuse to budge on this idea. However, I wish for both of my daughters to remain in this village. If I must marry one off, then I would want to be sure the person is trustworthy enough to be counted on keeping her safe. This is where you come in Uzumaki-san."

Naruto smiled as well before he frowned again and said "With all due respect, Hiashi-sama, you have said that the elders do not have a very high opinion of me. How do you plan on getting them to accept this?"

Hiashi nodded and said "That is true Uzumaki-san. However, I believe they well turn around quite soon. You are aware of what happens when you become a Jounin correct?"

Naruto nodded and said "Yes, my heritage is to become public knowledge." Naruto's eyes widened before another smile crossed his lips.

Naruto swore he saw a smirk cross the clan elder's lips for the briefest of instants before he nodded and said "As I've said before, the elders are quite adamant on forming a political alliance. What better alliance than one between two of the most politically powerful clans in the village? And after following your ninja career for so long, I am sure that you shall make Jounin within another year at most. When you do so and your heritage becomes known, the elders will have no choice but to agree. So, do we have an agreement?"

Naruto nodded and said "There are no problems on my side Hiashi-sama. I only ask that we allow Hinata to decide as well before we sign the contract."

Hiashi nodded and said "Of course, Uzumaki-san. If you see my daughter, well you please inform her to come to my office. I shall send for you when I have the contract drawn up. That well be all."

Naruto nodded and stood up before bowing to the clan head and left the office. As the door closed, Hiashi allowed a smile to make its way across his face as he began drawing up the contract.

As Naruto was walking down the hall way, he passed Hinata's room. Seeing she was inside, Naruto knocked on her door. Looking up from the book she was reading, Hinata's face lit up as she got up off her bed.

"Naruto! What are you doing here?" Hinata asked happily as she came to the door and gave Naruto a quick kiss.

Naruto beamed down at her and said "Your father wished to talk to me. It was a rather enjoyable conversation if I may say so. Anyway, he asked that if I saw you on my way out to inform you that he wishes to speak to you."

Hinata looked slightly confused at what her father would have wanted to talk to her boyfriend about that would have been enjoyable for him but nodded and said "I better go then. It's best not to keep father waiting."

Naruto nodded before giving her one last kiss before the kunoichi walked down the hall. Smiling after her, Naruto continued on his way out of the Hyuga compound.

Spotting his teammate Heza in front of the compound gate, Naruto frowned before coming out of the compound returning the nods the guards gave him.

Heza walked up to Naruto as he passed the guards and said "The Hokage wants to see us ASAP."

Naruto sighed before vanishing in a whirlwind of leaves with Heza right behind him.

They reappeared in the Hokage's office next to Matto and Kakashi. Sakura and Sasuke were standing on the other side of Kakashi. Naruto spotted Anko leaning against the wall out of the corner of his eye and immediately wondered why she was there.

Before he could say anything though, Tsunade said "Now that everyone is here, we can get started. First off, I want to inform the members of Team 7 that due to how many members of the team are now on active service, we are splitting the members into two teams. The original members of Team 7 well be led by Naruto and well be known from now on as Team Maelstrom. Kakashi will lead the other team composed of himself, Sasuke, and Sakura. They well go by the name of Team Kakashi. As with all teams that have Chunnin in them, the teams may switch around between the two and any other teams that need the members for certain missions. Any questions so far?"

There weren't any so Tsunade continued "I'm also going to open a program soon for kunoichi to become medic nin for their team. The program will be open to anyone who wants to join but all kunoichi must take the basic courses. Sakura, I believe that you would do well in this considering what Naruto has told me about your admirable chakra control. Naruto, I expect you to be in as many of these classes as possible."

Naruto nodded and Tsunade got to the main reason why she called everyone into her office. "That will have to wait though. For now I have a mission for you. The Daimyo of Sea Country has a bit of a pirate problem. For the past three months the ships that have been carrying the pay for his samurai forces has been raided. He has requested us to send a team and guard the next convoy and deal with the pirates. That is the official mission and is for Team Kakashi. Team Maelstrom has another mission that possibly is one in the same. Thanks to the raid on the Sound base in the Land of Tea that took place in the previous days, we now have what we believe to be highly accurate Intel on a base that Orochimaru had set up in the Land of Sea. It is our belief that it was once used as a base for performing maritime experiments. We also believe that it is possible that the pirates are being allowed to operate from it. Your job is to find the base, eliminate anyone using it, obtain any Intel you can, and then destroy the base. Anko will be joining you due to her experience when it comes to Orochimaru and well be in charge for the majority of this operation. Due to the possible information leak that we may have, officially the two teams will be sent on the mission for the Sea Daimyo with Team Maelstrom acting as backup. Due to Naruto's experience in the black ops area, he will be in charge when you take the base. Even if the leak does get the information out or it's all just a trap, he should be able to get everyone out. Once you all reach the ships it is up to Team Maelstrom and Anko to decide when to split off from Team Kakashi. However, they must have the base destroyed before team Kakashi leaves the country. Are there any questions?"

There were none and Tsunade dismissed them.

As the group walked through the tower, Kakashi was studying the scroll that held the details for the official mission.

"It says here that the ships will have enough food and supplies for us. Still, it'd be a good idea to pack for a week long trip just in case. We'll meet at the gate in two hours. That should give you more than enough time to finish up your business with Hiashi-sama Naruto."

The others looked at Naruto in confusion while Naruto simply nodded not bothering wondering how his teacher knew about what happened in the Hyuga compound. Naruto then took off in a shunshine to his apartment to gather the regular mission gear as well as what he was beginning to call his black ops gear that he would need to infiltrate and then destroy an enemy base. After he had everything he needed sealed in scrolls he locked up his apartment before taking off back to the Hyuga compound.

Meeting up with the same Branch Member from before halfway there, Naruto was escorted directly past the gate guards and back to Hiashi's office. As he entered the office he saw Hiashi at his usual place behind the desk with Hinata in the room as well sitting on the middle pillow in front of the desk. Sarutobi was in the room also sitting on the pillow on the end away from the door smoking his pipe.

Sarutobi nodded to Naruto who nodded back and smiled at the joy that was visible in his girlfriend's eyes.

Turning to Hiashi when he reached the pillows he bowed before sitting down.

Hiashi gave a nod in acknowledgment and said "Now that everyone is here, we can now seal this agreement."

Naruto nodded and Hiashi handed the marriage contract over to him and he read what was written. As he did, Naruto rose an eyebrow and said "Hiashi-sama, it says I'm supposed to provide security of the Byakugan for all who have it. Am I right in believing you want me to find an alternate protective seal besides the Cage Bird seal?"

Hiashi nodded and said "That is correct. Considering the work you have shown us previously, I am certain you will have no problems with it. It's high time we find a different seal that can properly protect our bloodline." Here Hiashi actually smirked before he continued "And unlike the Cage Bird seal, all members of the Hyuga clan will be required to have the seal placed on them. It is time the two families of the Hyuga clan were united again."

Sarutobi smirked as well while Naruto nodded knowing that Hiashi was doing this to unite the clan. The fact that it would spite the elders who relied on the seal to hold on to power was simply icing on the cake as far as the people in the room was concerned. He didn't care either way though since he was working on a seal that made the Cage Bird seal impractical anyway. He had believed that it was only right that he did so not only for his girlfriend's dream but also as he felt it was his duty as future Hokage to help out those in his village whenever he could.

As Naruto thought about this he shook his head at how Hiashi had included it in the marriage contract. With that in the contract, they could not claim that Naruto was interfering in clan matters because it was a marriage agreement sanctioned by the clan head.

Naruto finished reading the contract before signing where needed and passing the sheet to Hiashi who signed as well before Sarutobi signed on the line for the witness. He then handed the contract back to Hiashi who rolled the contract up before placing the contract into one of the two office safes. The other people in the room noted that the safe Hiashi used required the clan head's chakra signature instead of the safe with a simple dial locking mechanism on it. No point making it easy for the elders once Hiashi dropped the proverbial bombshell on them.

Hiashi then walked over to Naruto and shook his hand after Naruto stood up before saying "I am looking forward to the union of our two clans Uzumaki-san. Now I do believe you have a mission to complete."

Naruto rose an eyebrow and the clan head allowed a small chuckle before he said "Don't act so surprised Uzumaki-san. The guards at the gate told me about your teammate telling you to see the Hokage. I wish you luck on you mission."

Naruto nodded before bowing to Hiashi and Sarutobi before offering his hand to Hinata who smiled and took it. After Naruto helped her from her seat the two left the office with Naruto's arm around her waist and her head leaning on his shoulder.

Sarutobi and Hiashi both had small smiles on their faces as the young couple left the office. Their faces then turned serious as the door closed and Sarutobi turned to his friend and said "Now on to more serious business."

Hiashi nodded and said "Agreed" before heading back to the two safes and pulled out a map and other papers from the previously opened safe.

As Hiashi laid the papers down on his desk he said "Thanks to Uzumaki-san telling you about where he placed those security seals for Danzo during the time he was setting up the basic defenses of the village the days before the invasion we now have a better idea of how large the man's tunnel system most likely is. Now then, I suggest we-"

Scene Change: Hidden Village Main Gate

Naruto was leaning against one of the gates when the rest of the former Team 7 and Anko met up to leave.

As they got closer Naruto pushed himself away from the gate and began walking as he called over his shoulder "I already signed us out so we're good to go."

The others nodded as they caught up with him. Then as one the group jumped off into the trees.

Five minutes into their journey, Matto came alongside Naruto and said "Mind telling us what you were talking to Hiashi-sama for? No wait, let me guess, he gave you the kunai and twenty acres of land speech as a reminder to behave didn't he?"

Naruto chuckled and said "Not this time. We were discussing a marriage contract between me and Hinata. Turns out the elders had wanted to marry her off into the Daimyo's court and Hiashi decided to take measures to keep her in the village."

Heza who was on the other side of Naruto frowned and asked "Does Hinata know about all this?"

Naruto smiled and said "Yup. She was there when we signed the agreement. The old man was there as well as the witness. And to make it even better, Hiashi has asked me in the contract to make a seal that does a better job protecting the Byakugan than the Cage Bird seal that all of the clan members will have on them."

Anko who was in front of the group with Kakashi by her side smirked as she looked back over her shoulder and said "You know that the Hyuga elders are going to freak out when they find out right?"

Naruto smirked as well and said "Hiashi-sama's counting on it. He believes that they've had too much power in the clan for too long now. This is going to be a wake up call telling them that they aren't the ones calling the shots. Hiashi-sama is."

Kakashi looked over his shoulder and gave his patented eye smile and asked "So when will this happy arrangement be announced?"

"When I make Jounin. We'll announce it to the elders right after my heritage is revealed."

Off to the side next to the original members of Team 7, Sakura and Sasuke shared looks that clearly said "Heritage?" before the two shook their heads knowing that they really didn't want to know unless they wanted a headache at the moment.

Kakashi nodded and he and Anko looked back forward as the group continued on its way.

Omake: Meeting The Parents

Naruto was currently waiting at the gate to the Hyuga compound as he waited for an audience with the clan head. He was a bit nervous since he was about to do what every single male in the history of dating has feared: the dreaded meeting of the parents.

A branch member finally came to the gate and said "Hiashi-sama has agreed to talk with you. Please come with me."

Naruto nodded and followed the clansmen to a training area where Hiashi was currently supervising the training of a number of younger clansmen including his youngest daughter Hanabi. Sitting in a corner watching as well was Hinata who smiled at Naruto as he entered.

Naruto gave a small smile as well before Hiashi turned to Naruto and said "Takeshi-san says that you wished to speak to me on an important matter Uzumaki-san."

Naruto nodded getting a little more nervous due to how Hiashi was looking at him and his tone of voice before he said "Yes sir. I humbly request permission to date your daughter, Hinata."

Hiashi continued staring at Naruto making him sweat a little before saying "Very well. But let me be perfectly clear about one thing. Hurt her in anyway and no one will ever hear from you again. After all I have a lot of land and am the leader of the only clan that can see through the ground. Am I clear?"

Naruto quickly nodded his head showing he understood and said "Yes sir!"

Hiashi nodded and said "Good. You are dismissed Uzumaki-san."

As Naruto walked away trying not to show how shaken he was Hinata walked up to her father while some of the more emotional Hyugas smirked at the display.

Reaching his side Hinata looked over to her father and asked "Was that really necessary father?"

Hiashi looked down at his eldest daughter and to her surprise smirked as well before saying "Not at all my daughter. But it was fun watching him squirm like that."

Hinata simply shook her head before smiling while Hanabi looked at the two wondering what was going on between the two.

Hiashi looked back to the door Naruto went through and thought 'He will do quite nicely.'

Author's Note: Hope you guys liked this. I always thought it was funny how fathers liked to make that joke at least once to the boys who wanted to date their daughters. I also thought one of the authors I follow did the meeting between Naruto and Hiashi when he asked for permission to date his daughter best. This is my idea of how that meeting would go and as we just saw Hiashi isn't quite the ice block most make him out to be.


	42. Call of Duty Operation Stingray Part One

42 Call of Duty: Operation Stingray Part One

Author's Notes: Hey guys, sorry for the long wait on this one. I had HVAC exams last week and today that I had to study for.

The two teams that were formerly collectively known as Team 7 as well as Anko were currently on a small cliff that was beside a harbor which had what looked like a well off port town. Visible in the distance in front of the group were four islands. The middle island, called Mother Island, was the biggest one, at least twice as large as the surrounding islands and partially hiding one of the other three behind it.

"So that's the Land of the Sea huh?" Naruto asked as he and the rest of the group studied the islands.

Kakashi nodded and said "Yeah, but you got to remember it's not just those islands. That town down there and some of the land behind us is part of it as well."

Naruto nodded and looked over at the port town taking notice of the number of ships that were currently at the docks. Anko's eyes suddenly widened as she grabbed her neck.

The action didn't go unnoticed by Heza who looked at Anko in confusion and said "You alright Anko-sensei?" Everyone looked over to her as she gritted her teeth before whatever seemed to be bothering her passed.

Anko rubbed her neck and said "Yeah. Why don't you guys go ahead into town? Naruto, you and the others go ahead and find us some transportation to the islands. I'll meet you at the docks later and we'll head to the islands a little before sunset."

Anko jumped away before any of the group could say anything. Naruto narrowed his eyes in thought while noticing Kakashi did the same. Looking towards Sasuke, Naruto cocked his head a little and said "You alright there Sasuke?"

Sasuke looked at Naruto in confusion and said "Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"

Naruto shrugged and said "No reason."

All of the Chunnin looked at the blonde wondering why he asked that if he didn't have a reason while the Jounin in the group had some idea but didn't comment on it choosing instead to look back towards where Anko had taken off.

Looking back he said "Why don't we take Anko's advice and go ahead down."

The group nodded and began walking down the hill on the side of the cliff that led to the town.

Meanwhile, Anko was standing at another cliff staring out at the islands. As she looked down at the shore that was in front of the cliff, she suddenly saw the islands from the viewpoint of someone standing on the beach while there was a person next to her that she was talking to. As the memory faded, Anko shook her head and thought 'What's going on?'

Back with the others, The two teams were currently at the outskirts of the town.

Kakashi turned to Naruto and said "We'll part ways here. There's a ferry that's taking us to Mother Island where the payment fleet is. You guys should be able to catch a later ferry or get another way over to the islands after Anko gets back. Good luck on your mission."

Naruto and his two teammates nodded. Kakashi then motioned to Sasuke and Sakura before heading deeper into the town with the two falling in behind him.

After the trio was out of sight, Naruto turned to his teammates and said "Since we've got a while before we need to meet up with Anko-sensei, why don't we look around a little, maybe check out the market. I don't know about you guys, but I am not looking forward to only field rations to eat if this mission takes longer than it's supposed to."

Matto and Heza nodded before following the blond into town.

A little later, close to sunset, the three were looking through a small stand when they noticed a heavily bandaged girl enter. The man who ran the stand went over to her and took a basket that she had given him before heading over to the cashier and pulling out a little bit of money. Heading back over to the girl, he dropped the money into her hand.

Looking at the small amount of money in her hand, the girl looked up at the man who nervously said "I'm sorry, but that's the best I can do."

Heza frowned when she heard this and went over to the two and said "Why's that? That looks like good fish to me."

The man frowned and said "I'm not underpaying her. With all this talk of the sea demon now a days, I'm not getting as many customers."

The three teens noticed the girl's eyes widening a bit before she took off.

Frowning, Naruto stepped up to the stand owner and said "Do you know why she had so many bandages on her? She didn't move like she was injured."

The man sighed and said "No she's not injured, but there's definitely something wrong with her."

"What do you mean?" Matto asked while joining the group as they watched the girl walk down the street,

"No one knows, but she's actually a diver from Mother Island."

"If she's an islander then why does she come to the mainland?" Heza asked.

"It's because no one on the island will do business with her." The man placed the fish down on the counter before leaning forward and said "Not long ago, she was taken by the spirits."

If the man didn't have the three leaf shinobi's attention before, they sure had it now. The three shared a glance before Naruto said "You mean she disappeared?"

The man nodded and said "You got it. One day a bunch of the islanders just upped and vanished. Story is, of all those people, only she turned up again. We're a small village, and she makes everyone a bit nervous. They say she lives outside the village now, alone."

The group looked back at the girl who was still walking down the road and Heza said "Wow, I feel so sorry for her."

The shopkeeper nodded and said "Looking like that, and all the stories that are told, how can you not be on edge?"

Naruto frowned before saying "You guys find us a way to the islands, I want to check something."

Matto and Heza nodded and walked towards the docks before Naruto took off after the girl. The shopkeeper looked confused but decided it wasn't his business.

Naruto caught up to the girl to find her on the ground with two men standing around her. Recognizing the beginning of a beating from his past, Naruto called out "OI! What do you two think you're doing?"

The two men looked up and noticed Naruto before taking off. Naruto frowned as he vaguely recognized the two chakra signatures the men gave off but couldn't remember where he had sensed them before. Shaking his head free of such thoughts, Naruto ran over to the girl and said "Hey, you alright?"

The girl looked over at Naruto and stiffened when she caught sign of Naruto's headband. Naruto noticed but decided not to comment on it as he started putting the groceries that the girl had dropped back into the bag.

Handing the bag back to her, he said "Here you go. I'm Naruto by the way. Naruto Uzumaki, what's your name?"

The girl hesitated for a moment before saying "Isaribi, thanks for the help. Not many people would bother."

Naruto's face darkened as he said softly "Yeah, I bet. People fear what they don't know after all."

Isaribi looked at the blond and thought 'Why does he sound like he's talking from experience?' She then shook her head and got up before saying "I've got to go." before taking off running.

Naruto sighed as he watched her go and thought 'Well so much for finding out if she had been at that base or not. Better go find Matto and Heza.'

The sun was just beginning to dip into the horizon when Naruto found Matto and Heza at a dock next to a small skiff.

As he came down the steps, Matto looked up and said "Anything?"

Naruto shook his head and said "Nah, she ran off before I could ask her anything."

The two frowned but dropped the subject. Heza looked around and said "Where's Anko? She should have been here by now."

Naruto mentally smirked before saying "Who knows where she is."

A kunai was suddenly at Naruto's neck as an arm draped around his shoulder and he heard "Right here."

A kunai was just as suddenly at Anko's neck surprising her as another Naruto draped his own arm around Anko as well and said "About time you got here."

Anko looked between the two Naruto's trying to figure out which was the clone. The first one smirked before disappearing in a poof of smoke answering her unspoken question. Matto and Heza meanwhile rolled their eyes at the two's antics before the two got into the boat.

Heza sat down near the front and said "You two coming?"

Naruto nodded and hopped into the boat near the end and grabbed the rudder. Matto sat down next to Heza while Anko sat down in the middle. Once everyone was in place, Naruto pushed off from the dock and began rowing the skiff out to the islands. As the boat pushed off, two men were watching from the roof top.

Meanwhile, at the main dock on Mother Island, Kakashi was standing on the deck of one of the ships. As Kakashi looked out at the mainland, he thought 'Good luck you guys.'

The ship's captain came up next to him and said "I appreciate you coming so soon even though we aren't leaving for a few more days. But are you sure you and your students can handle the demon of the ocean? They say it's pretty fierce."

Kakashi looked over at the captain and nodded saying "Yeah, I think we can handle it." The captain nodded and headed back below decks.

Night time had fallen by the time the small boat was half way to the islands. As Naruto was rowing, he said "Hey Anko-sensei, where did you go earlier?"

Anko rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment as she said "Oh you know, just going around gathering information."

Naruto hmmed before the boat shook and stopped moving. As Naruto strained against the oar, he said "We must have hit some rocks or something!"

Anko's eyes widened as she said "I don't thinks so. Eyes forward guys, we got trouble up ahead."

The three Chunnin looked ahead and noticed a whirlpool.

"Well that's not good." Heza said right before what looked like a tentacle grabbed her and lifted her into the air.

"Heza!" Matto called out before jumping up off the boat and slashed at the tentacle with a kunai causing it to break apart into water. As the two landed on the surface of the water, Matto looked over at his girlfriend and said "You all right?"

Heza nodded and said "Yeah, but what was that?" Matto shook his head showing that he had no clue.

Back on the boat, Anko jumped off calling over her shoulder to Naruto "Leave it kid."

Naruto nodded and jumped after her just as the whirlpool sucked the boat down.

Landing next to Anko, Naruto knelt down and placed his hand on the water while closing his eyes. Opening them again, he said "There's two of them, but I'm picking up at least one water clone as well."

Anko nodded before another tentacle came out causing the two to split up to avoid it. The tentacle managed to grab Anko though. Smirking as she was lifted up into the air, Anko made some hand signs before calling out "Fire Style: Dragon Flame Jutsu!" Fire streamed out of her mouth along the path of the tentacle burning it and setting the area in front of her on fire.

As Anko landed she saw a figure appear in the dying flames before it dispersed into water.

'There's the clone, now where's the original?' Anko thought before another tentacle wrapped around her neck as a man appeared behind her. The man grabbed the tentacle which turned out to be his arm, pulling it tighter and laughed before saying "You let your guard down didn't you?"

The man was suddenly kicked in the back of the head by Naruto who said "So did you!"

The man flew away from them bouncing along the water a few times before sinking into the water as Naruto landed from his kick. Turning to Anko he was about to ask her if she was all right when a hand reached out of the water and grabbed his ankle.

Naruto looked down and had just enough time to think 'what the-' before he was dragged under and put into a headlock. Turning his head, he saw a man with a breath mask on his face. The man chuckled and said through the mask's speakers "I'm going to suck on your chakra kid."

Naruto smirked and thought 'I had wondered if Kabuto's teammates had been traitors as well. Now we know." Naruto's smirk turned pure evil as he thought 'So you want some chakra eh? Hey father, let's show this guy the all you can eat buffet.'

"**With pleasure"** Kyubi said before a cloud of red chakra surrounded Naruto causing the guy's eyes to widen before the chakra got absorbed. As it did, the man dispersed into water, the clone unable to maintain its form due to the corrosive nature of the demon chakra.

'Another clone.' Naruto thought before kicking back up to the surface. Breaking the surface next to Anko, Naruto pushed himself into a crouching position on the water as Matto and Heza joined the two. The two men then appeared in front of the group laughing.

Anko growled at them and said "What's so funny? And who are you anyway?"

Naruto didn't give them a chance to say anything though.

"They're Yoroi Akado and Misumi Tsurugi. They were Kabuto's teammates during the Chunnin Exams."

Misumi grinned and said "Looks like the brat remembers us. Too bad he won't be able to tell anyone."

Yoroi smirked and began running through hand signs. Finishing, he called out "Water Style: Tsunami Jutsu!"

The two broke into water showing that they had been clones as well before a huge wave rose up and rushed towards the group.

Naruto "ch"ed before he stepped in front of everyone and ran through his own hand signs before calling out "Wind Style: Great Breakthrough Jutsu!" Naruto shot his palm forward and a burst of wind shot out before punching a hole through the wave.

As the wave passed the group, everyone looked around trying to find the two traitors.

"See them anywhere?" Anko asked.

Naruto shook his head and said "No, I can't sense them in the area anymore."

Matto nodded and said "Me either. I don't think they were planning on staying through the whole fight anyway. They probably just made a bunch of clones and then left before they even fired that water jutsu off."

Heza nodded and said "Yeah, but what were they doing here? I mean yeah it's obvious now that those two were traitors, but I would have thought that we would have gotten a bigger welcome than just two guys."

Anko shook her head and said "We can worry about that later you guys. For now, we need to get to the islands. We'll go to Mother Island for now and head over to Demon Island tomorrow."

The three Chunnin nodded before the group took off over the water towards the islands.


	43. Call of Duty Operation Stingray Part Two

43 Call Of Duty: Operation Stingray: Part Two

The sun was just thinking about rising as Team Maelstrom plus Anko reached Mother Island. The four made landfall on a small beach that was about a klick (a little over half a mile) from the island's main port. The team continued running until they entered the forest line. Once there, the group leaned against the trees in order to regain their energy while maintaining a state of alert in case they got any more surprise visitors.

Naruto created a few clones who henged into foxes and went to patrol the surrounding area. Once that was done, he turned to Anko and said "What now Anko? Those guys are sure to have reported in by now."

Anko cocked her head as she thought before saying "Hm, normally, I'd say hang low and wait till night fall to try to sneak to Demon Island and try to take out the people at that base as quietly as possible, but that's obviously out of the question now. We're just going to have to go there now and do things the old fashioned way."

Matto smirked and said "Just the way we like it."

Naruto nodded while Heza rolled her eyes, although she had a small smirk on her face as well.

Anko got an evil grin that would have made the younger members of Team Kakashi shudder and thought 'Well it's official. I LIKE these guys!'

Naruto pushed off from his tree and said "Well, I don't know about you guys, but I'm ready to go kick some Sound butt."

The rest of the group nodded and Anko got an evil gleam in her eye and said "Oh we will, trust me. But first, Naruto, can you send a message to Kakashi and tell him what happened? Also tell him to expect some Sound Shinobi if that 'demon' appears."

Naruto nodded and got out a scroll and began writing a quick message. As soon as he was done, he rolled up the scroll and bit his thumb before running through the familiar hand signs.

A poof of smoke later, Rigeoned was standing in the middle of the group looking around. Naruto kneeled down and said "Rigeoned, I need you to find Kakashi and give him this message."

Rigeoned nodded and took the offered scroll and stuck it to his side with chakra before closing his eyes and locking onto both Kakashi's scent and chakra signature. Nodding to himself once he found them, the fox opened his eyes and shot off into the forest. He was out of the Leaf nins passive senses in seconds.

Anko pushed off from her own tree as Matto and Heza did the same and said "Well, let's go guys."

The three Chunnin nodded and the group took to the trees, heading toward the side of the island where they would cross over to their objective.

Scene Change: Mother Island Main Port: Lead Ship of Payment Fleet

Kakashi was standing on the dock reading his beloved book waiting for his two charges to report in. As he turned a page, Sasuke and Sakura jumped down from nearby rooftops and walked over to him.

"Nothing to report. Everything's pretty quiet around town." Sasuke said in a semi bored tone.

"Same here." Sakura said.

Kakashi nodded but before he could say anything, a red blur appeared in front of the group causing the two rooks to go for their kunai pouches before they recognized Rigeoned. Kakashi merely raised an eyebrow before turning the page in his book again before saying "To what do I owe this pleasure Rigeoned?"

Rigeoned hopped up to Kakashi's shoulder and placed the scroll he was carrying into Kakashi's waiting hand and said "Naruto has a message for you."

Kakashi nodded before he closed his book and put it under his arm as he opened the scroll and read the message. Sakura and Sasuke noticed Kakashi's eyebrow raise again and Sasuke asked "What's it say?"

Kakashi rolled up the message and put it in his pouch before saying "It says that Team Maelstrom was ambushed on their way here. They just made landfall and are currently heading to the side of the island before they head to Demon Island. They also said that it has been confirmed that there are still active Sound Shinobi in the area and that there is a good chance that they're the ones behind the attacks."

Sakura frowned and said "Are they alright?"

Sasuke snorted and said "Are you kidding Sakura? This is Naruto we're talking about. I'm sure he single handily kicked whoever's butt came after them back to Demon Island."

Sakura had the dignity to look embarrassed and mumbled a "right" while Kakashi rubbed the back of his head in a manner similar to said blond before saying "Well, yes, that is possible. Anyway, we now know that it is almost completely positive that the attacks on the ships were caused by shinobi. I want you two to be on high alert from here on out."

The two nodded as the captain of the guard for the ships came to the small group. As soon as he was standing by Kakashi he said "Change of plans. The Land of Water just sent a messenger that said we have to leave sooner than we planned. We'll be leaving tomorrow."

Kakashi nodded and said "I see. Thank you for telling us." The captain left while Kakashi turned to Rigeoned who was still on his shoulder.

"Rigeoned, can you please inform Naruto? And tell him not to go overboard over there this time. Just because the place is named Demon Island doesn't mean he should just cut lose out there."

Sasuke smirked while Sakura put a hand over mouth to cover her giggle. Rigeoned chuckled and said "Sure thing Kakashi." And with that, he was gone in a poof of smoke.

Back with Team Maelstrom, Naruto felt a mental tug. Looking over at Anko who was beside him he said "Can we stop for a minute? Rigeoned wants to be summoned."

Anko nodded and the group dropped down from the trees and Naruto quickly ran through the necessary procedure.

As the smoke cleared, Rigeoned hopped onto Naruto's shoulder and said "Kakashi wanted me to tell you that the schedule for the payment fleet has been moved up. They're setting off tomorrow. Oh and Naruto, Kakashi said not to go overboard out there even if the island's name is Demon Island."

Team Maelstrom chuckled while Anko merely raised an eyebrow. Getting his act together again Naruto said "No promises there but I'll do my best. Thanks Rigeoned."

Rigeoned nodded and disappeared in a cloud of smoke. The group quickly took off again.

Fifteen minutes later found the group standing on a cliff that surrounded three fourths of a small cove that was almost an exact straight shot to Demon Island. The group noticed a beat up shack on one end of the beach.

Heza gestured over to the shack and said "There's signs of people being there in the past few days. Think anyone lives there?"

Naruto ran a critical eye over it and said "Maybe, but not by choice if they are."

The rest of the group nodded before Matto caught movement out of the corner of the eye. Turning his head, he noticed a heavily bandaged person walking towards the shack with her head down.

Frowning he said "I think we just found out who lives here."

Naruto and Heza looked at Matto and then followed his gaze. As they saw who he was talking about they nodded. Anko noticed the looks on their faces and said "Know her?"

The trio nodded and Naruto said "Remember when I told you about that person who was supposedly taken by spirits that we think was actually taken to that base?"

Anko nodded and then her eyes gained an understanding light as she watched the figure head into the shack.

"Uh-oh." Matto said as he caught sight of movement again. The group looked back towards the entrance to the beach and saw a bunch of kids heading to the shack with plans of violence written all over their body language. It didn't help that they had rocks in their hands.

Naruto frowned and said "I don't know about you guys, but I do not like the looks on those kids' faces."

Anko frowned as well before seeming to come to a decision. "You said that you think she knows about the base right?"

Naruto nodded trying to figure out what Anko was getting at.

Anko smirked and said "Well then, why don't we go talk to her? The base can wait an hour or two. Besides, those little runts need to learn to respect their elders."

Understanding shone in the three teen's eyes before they smirked as well. All four started heading to the shack ready to catch said little runts in the act and make sure that they never came back.

Back in the shack, Isaribi had just lied down when she heard someone coming. Frowning, she went to see who it was and saw the kids.

As she came out one of the kids sneered and said "There's the monster! Take this!"

Right after his shout, the kids all threw their rocks. But before they could hit their target, four blurs appeared and caught the rocks.

Isaribi's eyes widened when the blurs turned out to be the three teens from before as well as a woman she never seen before. The kids' eyes also widened. All four ninja were staring at the kids with impassive looks on their faces before as one they held their hands up and crushed the rocks in them with shinobi strength before opening them and letting the pebbles out of their hand. The kids' eyes bugged out before they all turned and ran screaming about monsters in human form.

As they fled, Anko smirked and said "Damn, that felt good!" before turning around and said "You alright there kid?"

Isaribi looked down and nodded before saying "Yes, thank you."

Naruto stepped close and put a hand on her shoulder and said "Don't mention it Isaribi. All four of us really hate bullies. It was the least we could do."

Isaribi nodded again but continued to look down at the ground.

Heza studied the girl for a minute before saying "Isaribi? Is something wrong?"

Isaribi looked up and studied their faces before saying "Why? Why do you help me? What can you possibly gain from being nice to me?"

Naruto sighed and said "We help because it is the right thing to do Isaribi. The way you have been treated by the rest of islanders is not only unfair, but idiotic on their parts. I know I had said yesterday that people fear what they don't understand but that gives them no right to treat you as some kind of monster."

Isaribi gasped slightly before her eyes dimmed and she said "You wouldn't be saying that if you saw what was under these bandages."

The four shinobi rose their eyebrows while Matto said "Try us."

Isaribi shook her head sadly and said "If I do, you'll just run away like everyone else. You should just go ahead and leave. I don't want to cause you any trouble."

The four frowned and Heza stepped up and put a hand on her shoulder and said "We won't run, and you won't get us into trouble. Please Isaribi, we just want to help."

Isaribi bit her lip before nodding and began undoing the many bandages. As she did, the others' eyes widened at the sight of scales covering part of her body as well as gills set into her neck. At Matto's mutter of Holy, Isaribi flinched and looked down again.

"See, I told you so." She said in a low whisper.

The group frowned before Matto walked over and lifted her chin causing her to look into his eyes. Maintaining eye contact he said "Isaribi, those who see only the outside are blind. It's what's on the inside that counts."

Isaribi's eyes widened but before she could say anything, the ninjas' danger senses went off like crazy causing them to jump out of the way of a water dragon that landed right where they had been a second ago. As Matto set Isaribi down he said "Figures they would choose now to come back."

Naruto smirked and said "Hey, I'm not complaining. I hate having loose ends."

Anko shook her head and said "Cut the chatter boys, this is serious."

A pair of yes ma'ams was her answer as the group looked at the two traitors that were now visible on the water's surface.

Misumi gave that supposedly evil chuckle of his and said "Well, well, lookie what we have here. If it isn't the brats again. Let me guess you came here to deal with the so called 'demon.' I'm guessing you want her for yourselves though considering you saved her."

Isaribi flinched which the others noticed. Their eyes hardened and Naruto growled out "Anko, permission to deal with these two?"

Anko smirked and said "Permission granted."

Naruto shot off like a rocket and before either of the two traitors could react found a foot hitting their chins as Naruto and a clone kicked them into the air. Flipping over on their hands, the original and clone pushed off of the water with their feet before slamming fists into their opponent's stomachs sending the two flying. Didn't end there though as Naruto and the clone began going through hand signs before calling out their jutsu while all four were still in the air.

"Wind Style: Wind Scythe Jutsu!"

Two blasts of wind shot towards the traitors before hitting them. They screamed as the wind began cutting all over their bodies before falling down into the water slowly turning it red. As Naruto and the clone landed on the water, they walked over to the bodies and threw them onto the shore where Matto and Heza were quick to tie them up. Naruto dismissed his clone before heading back to join them.

Isaribi meanwhile was looking on with wide eyes while Anko stood with the smirk still on her face. Once Naruto was with the other three she said "Good job Naruto. Now why don't you guys take Isaribi here over to her house for a minute and continue our discussion from before. I've got a few things I want to talk with our friends here for a bit."

The three teens nodded before turning Isaribi away from the sight of the two men who used to torment her and dragged her into the shack. Anko's smirk meanwhile turned into an evil grin as she approached the groaning men. Kicking them so that they were face up she pulled out a kunai and licked it before saying "Now then, let's see if you can't answer some of my questions."

As the teens entered the shack, Matto gently pushed Isaribi into a sitting position as Heza knelt down next to them. Naruto took up a position leaning against the door way where he could keep an eye on both their conversation and Anko's interrogation.

Matto took a moment to arrange his thoughts before he said "Isaribi, we need you to tell us anything you can about the base on Demon Island."

Isaribi jumped and began looking panicked as she said "What are you talking about? There's no base on Demon Island."

Matto frowned, but it was Heza who spoke up.

"Isaribi, we don't care if you're the demon of the ocean or not. What we care about is the fact that the people in that base are harming others and that it is our job to take them out. I can understand if you don't want to go back there, but we need to know what you can tell us about that base."

Isaribi looked into Heza's eyes for a minute before sighing and said "All right. Here's what I know."

Author's Notes: Sorry for the short update. It was either cut off here or go an extra twelve pages which would take even longer to update with. Expect an end to the Sea Country arc next chapter.


	44. Call of Duty Operation StingrayPartThree

44. Call of Duty Operation Stingray Part 3

Four blurs made their way across the water that separated Mother Island and Demon Island kicking up wake trails behind them. Making landfall on Demon Island, the blurs ran up the beach into a canyon. Stopping about two thirds up, the blurs turned into Team Maelstrom with Isaribi on Naruto's back.

Anko pulled out a map that Isaribi had drawn up for them as Naruto let Isaribi down and said "All right guys, lets go over the plan one more time. We're going in hard and fast on this one. No more sneaking around like last time. Naruto well create four man clone squads and give them summoned support. These squads well hit the barracks, storage areas, and minor labs while we head to the main one. Their job is to take out anyone they come across and keep moving sowing as much mayhem as possible. A couple of squads well be left at the main entrance and any others they find. Meanwhile, the rest of us will be heading to the main lab. We grab whatever data hasn't already been destroyed and then start tearing the place apart with our jutsu on the way out. (Naruto got a scary smile when that was said but everyone ignored it. Just some easier than others.) Once the base is destroyed, we'll use the fox tracking squads to get as many stragglers as we can. Isaribi, remember to stay close to me or one of the runts at all times all right?"

Isaribi nodded and Naruto bit both his thumbs and slammed his palms on the ground. As the smoke from the summoning cleared revealing the toads and foxes, Naruto crossed his hands and created the needed amount of shadow clones.

Turning to the summons who had watched him create the clones he said "Listen up! This is a search and destroy mission. You guys well be support for four man squads which are going to be taking out any sound ninja you come across. Once my own team has what we came for and gives the signal, you guys are to return back to your realms so the clones can safely overload themselves and bring the bases down. Gamaso, I want you with me, you're going to be helping the clones bring down the house once we're finished in the base."

The summons nodded while the singled out toad gave an evil grin that made a few of the other toads shudder.

After everyone was grouped up, Team Maelstrom led the way up the canyon to a thick set of steel doors. As the squads stacked up on the doors, Naruto and Heza stepped up to the doors and nodded to each other before blowing them down with Rasengans before going back to the sides.

Alarms began blaring as the squads rushed in and began heading down different hallways cutting through anyone they came across in a mixture of shuriken, kunai, jutsu, and swordsmanship. Team Maelstrom was one of the last groups in leaving behind two squads to guard the entrance. Anko took point with Naruto and Gamaso on either side of her both with their swords out as she led the way at a run.

Just as they were about halfway down the first hallway, a squad of sound nin rounded the far corner and began throwing shuriken and kunai at the group. Naruto and Gamaso jumped past Anko and began deflecting the weapons with their blades never slowing down from their pace and causing the sound nin to begin retreating before arrows, both regular and lightning, shot past the two swordsmen and killed the majority of them. Gamaso and Naruto reached the last couple of sound nin and quickly killed them before Naruto made a quick hand sign and sent the clone squads that he had made down the hallway the sound nin had come from as well as down the opposite hallway while the original and his team kept going straight.

Anko took the lead again leading them deeper into the base. They ran into another squad of sound nin in the next corridor but Anko took them out with a quick Striking Shadow Snake Jutsu and the team ran past the dead nin without breaking stride. As the team continued, they met a few more squads and took care of them as quickly as they did the rest. All through out that time, Isaribi was looking both terrified and sick of the ongoing fights but did her best to keep up with the shinobi and summon who were doing their best to make sure the girl was well protected.

(For those wondering what the hell is she even doing there with them, remember that they are in enemy territory and that the members in this group won't dispel if a lucky hit gets in.)

When the group finally came to their destination, they had a large obstacle blocking their way. The main lab door was extremely wide, with hinges that had no right being as thick as they were and made out of slabs of steel that were thicker than the main entrance by at least twice as much. Anko nodded to Naruto who nodded right back before sealing his toad sword so that he could us his fox blade with both hands.

The blade burst into flames before turning white hot. Naruto placed the blade at the bottom of the door before shoving it in to the hilt. Naruto kept the fire natured chakra running through his blade as he began making his own entrance. Once he had an outline for a door that would allow two people to enter side by side, he doused the flames on his blade with water chakra before using a quick wind justu to cool the metal door down enough to be touched.

Sealing his fox blade, Naruto then coated his hands in wind before kicking in the newly made door with a chakra enhanced kick. As the door fell in, Naruto shot through in a blur dodging the jutsu and kunai that were launched at him and got in close and personal with the welcoming committee.

As Naruto was cutting through the first nin's throat, Matto came through the door with a Chidori blazing in both hands and stabbed another nin that was trying to gut Naruto with a kunai in the heart. Nodding to each other, the two teammates went back to back for a moment cutting another ninja each in a sweeping move as they did before splitting up to take out more targets.

Right behind them was Heza who quickly ran through hand signs and coated herself in thin but highly durable rock armor before launching herself into the fray as well.

The rest of the ten ninja that were in the lab quickly fell under the onslaught and Naruto gave the ok to Anko who came in with Isaribi while Gamaso stayed outside in case anymore sound nin came. Looking around, Anko frowned when it quickly became apparent that nothing useful was left in the lab.

Walking over to the one ninja that Heza hadn't killed she jerked him up to her level and growled out "Where's Amachi?"

The nin smirked and said weakly "Wouldn't you like to know?"

'Wrong thing to say to her.' Thought the three Chunnin as a sadistic grin began making its way across Anko's face.

But she surprised them when they heard "As much fun as I would have with you, we're on a bit of a tight schedule. Naruto!"

Understanding what she wanted, Naruto stepped forward and ran through some hand seals before touching the man's forehead and closed his eyes. The man's eyes went dull for a moment before Naruto canceled the technique and opened his eyes again.

Turning to Anko he said "Amachi and a small group of twenty other sound nin left the base roughly an hour before we got here. They plan on taking over the payment fleet and using it to make their escape to a base that's on an island further out in the ocean."

Anko killed the nin by snapping his neck before turning around and began walking out of the lab. Calling over her shoulder she said "Get the summons out Naruto we're bringing this place down and then we're going after them."

Naruto nodded and created eight clones telling them to spread out around the lab before following Anko and his team out. As they ran down the hallways to the exit, he sent a message to the rest of his clones telling them to inform the summons that they should start clearing the area. Getting final confirmation that all of them besides Gamaso was out, Naruto told the clones to begin spreading out and to await further orders.

Once Team Maelstrom was outside and at a safe distance, Anko nodded to Naruto and he opened a link to all of the clones.

'All clear, light 'em up boys.'

There was a deep rumbling sound as all of the clones exploded at once causing a tremor to run through the area. Turning to Gamaso, Naruto grinned and said "Ready to finish the job my fellow demolitionist?"

Matto and Heza sweat dropped while Gamaso matched Naruto's grin and said "Oh Yeah."

The two unsealed their swords and faced the base as the blades began to glow.

As one they called out "Blade Art: Crescent Blade Storm!"

The two then began swinging their swords faster than most people could follow launching countless blades of white light into the base and surrounding area causing the base to collapse and a miniature landslide to fill in the resulting hole.

As the dust cleared, Gamaso sheathed his swords and said "Now that's more like it. There's nothing better than a good old demo job to get rid of all your frustration. Well, I'm off!"

And with that the toad was gone. Naruto was about ready to perform another summons when Anko grabbed his arm and said "That won't be necessary kid. We know where they're headed." Looking them all in the eye she continued "They've got an hour lead on us, so we're going have to be quick."

Heza grinned and said "Leave it to me." She made a follow me motion before leading the group to the beach. Once there, she bit her thumb and ran through a set of hand signs that was very familiar to the other shinobi. Slamming her palm down on the ground, five VERY large eagles appeared.

Naruto stared for a moment before he grinned and said "So your parents finally allowed you to sign the family contract huh?"

Heza grinned back before walking over to what the others assumed was the leader of the small group of eagles and said "There's a group of about twenty shinobi that are heading to a small payment fleet that is taking off from the port town of the island across from this one. We need to catch up with them. Think you guys can help?"

Now eagles may have beaks, but Naruto and the others could have sword they saw the eagle smirk as if to say "Are you kidding" before jerking its head back. Heza nodded before jumping on its back and said "You guys coming?"

The other shinobi got grins before jumping on their own eagles while Isaribi did so with a bit less enthusiasm. As the eagles took flight, their passengers used chakra to stay on top of their mounts as they flew in a v formation towards Mother Island.

Author's Notes: Hey guys, I'm sorry these have been so short and taken so long lately. I've lost most of my focus when it comes to writing right now. I'm still doing my best to get them out, but with school in full swing it will be a bit hard. Add to the fact that one of my biggest supporters wants to see one of my potential story ideas actually be made a real story as soon as possible and you have one kid with a lot on his mind so to speak. Any way, take a look at said story ideas. If enough people like them, I may try to fit a fourth story in since none of my current ones will be complete anytime soon.


	45. Call Of Duty Operation Stingray Part Fou

45. Call Of Duty Operation Stingray Part Four

Story Start: Thirty Five Nautical Miles From Demon Island, En Route To Mother Island Port

Even with their quarry of twenty one enemy personnel in a couple of large motorboats that were traveling at a rather impressive speed for such vehicles, it did not take long for the four shinobi and their tagalong's eagles to catch up with them. Twenty minutes after lift off, the formation of eagles was flying seventy five feet behind the two boats and Naruto grinned as he saw one of the sound shinobi on the island side boat pointing at them with alarm. He couldn't exactly blame the guy though since lets face it, a small flock of five eagles half the size of the boat you're currently riding in would probably scare anyone who didn't have his own summoning contract.

His grin widened as Anko shouted "Alright kiddies listen up cause I've got a new game for you to play! It's called Death From Above!"

Matto clapped like a little kid as he said "Oh I love that game! Ooh, ooh! Can I go first?"

"Knock yourself out kid!" Anko said and Matto grinned as he asked his eagle to get ahead of the boats. The eagle easily complied and quickly pulled ahead of the two boats before dropping its speed to pace them fifty feet in front of them. Matto thanked it for the ride and took five running steps along its back before he dove off of it with a cry of "Banzai!"

Isaribi watched in horror as the apparently suicidal boy jumped off his ride a good seventy five feet in the air before her eyes widened as the boy activated the chakra weight bands on his wrists and ankles that both he and Heza had turned off while riding the eagles and proceeded to plummet to the water below faster than an anvil. As he fell, a coating of lightning natured chakra covered him before Matto ran through hand signs and shouted "Lightning Style: Lightning Shockwave!" The jutsu took effect just as he blasted through the boat protected by his Lightning Armor and piercing it with ease ending up in the water underneath. Said jutsu let loose with a twenty foot radius shockwave of electricity that immediately electrocuted all ten passengers and killed the engine. Water began gushing into the boat through the rather large hole Matto made and the passengers struggled to get off while still spasmodically jerking all over the place uncontrollably. That wasn't the end of their troubles though because Matto shot out of the water beside the boat by overpowering the water walking technique and ran through another set of hand signs as he called out "Lightning Style: Grand Lightning Dragon Jutsu!" The passengers screamed in fear as a massive dragon made out of Lightning the size of their boat formed in the air over Matto and roared at them before it launched itself at the boat and absolutely demolished it killing everyone on board.

The other leaf shinobi hadn't been idle during all this. As Matto dropped like a stone, Heza unsealed her bow and arrow and had an arrow that had earth chakra in it as well as wrapped with an explosion note pulled back before she released it into the motor of the other boat. The tag exploded on impact and the motor was blown to smithereens. Naruto compounded the problem by letting loose with a Wind Senbon Jutsu that pockmarked the boat leaving it looking like Swiss cheese and most of the enemy shinobi resembling well used pin cushions. Only five of the shinobi had managed to leave the boat in time including their main target, Amachi. Out of those five, two were taken out in mid jump by the rather fast acting poison on Anko's kunai that she expertly threw to nick them right on their left shoulders which gave it almost instant access to their hearts.

As the bodies of the now thoroughly dead shinobi sank into the ocean's depths, the Leaf shinobi thanked their mounts jumped off seeing no point in staying on them when the boats weren't going anywhere. Anko gestured at Naruto and his head shot over to her and she began signing at him telling him to get Amachi away from the last two and that she and Heza would deal with him. He nodded and she and Heza both dove into the ocean with chakra streamlining them preventing them from being injured from the fall while Naruto decided to take another route down.

Immediately following orders, and imitating Matto, Naruto ran down his ride's back and leapt into the air. Performing a partial back flip so that his legs were pointed to the sky, he blasted a seal less great breakthrough from both of his hands and was thrown through the air right at Amachi at speeds that would have left Kakashi struggling to get out of the way in time. Said evil scientist's eyes widened in surprise at the move but didn't have any time to react before Naruto's sandaled foot absolutely shattered his nose as the leaf ninja flipped and slammed a kick into Amachi's face before he kicked back into a back flip landing on the water in a crouch. Amachi himself was thrown backwards over fifty feet before he hit the ocean and bounced along it three times before he could finally come to a skidding stop a hundred and fifteen feet from the blond. The two sound shinobi who were with him stared in surprise for a moment before properly reacting. Unfortunately for them, that was a moment too many since before their hands had even reached their kunai holsters they each had a sword going through their foreheads courtesy of the blond shinobi in front of them.

Amachi meanwhile had stood up and shouted "You think you can beat me?! I'll crush you to dust you insolent insect! Then I'll raze that pathetic excuse of a gurk!" That was as far as he got since Anko burst out of the water right in front of him and slammed a fist in his stomach. The baddy folded over like an accordion and flew through the air. Heza erupted out of the water on his right side leg already raised before she brought it down on his head in a vicious axe kick which sent him crashing back into the ocean.

Anko and Heza waited for him to resurface somewhere nearby and frowned when he didn't. They were just about to ask Naruto where the guy was when they saw him kneeling down on the water with his hands under the surface and his face scrunched in concentration. They both took a step back in surprise when he shouted "Gotcha ya slimy eel!" and proceeded to rip his hands out of the water with a water whip following that held a creature that all of the leaf nin suspected Isaribi would look like if she were to transform. The whip made five rapid circles over Naruto's head before it hung the creature in front of him upside down at just the right height for Naruto to look directly in its eyes without him raising or lowering his head. Smirking at the writhing creature, Naruto said "I must admit you're rather fast pal, but thanks to the hell I've gone through being trained by my academy teacher the way I was, you stood no chance getting away from me once I locked onto your chakra signature. Now why don't you give up, change back, and let me seal your chakra before I start tearing your chakra network to pieces."

"Never!" The now revealed Amachi shouted before he built up chakra and shot a seal less Rock Splitter Jutsu out of his mouth at Naruto point blank range. Sensing the chakra build up, Naruto shifted his head to the right allowing the piercing stream of water to shoot past his ear leaving a micro cut as it grazed the rim that almost immediately healed leaving no trace of the wound ever being there. Naruto meanwhile flipped Amachi so that he was right side up and three other water whips shot out of the ocean they were standing on and forced the scientist into a spread eagle position.

"I gave you a chance to come quietly, you decided to literally spit me in the face with it. Now I'm going to make you wish you were in Anko's hands right now." Naruto said before he shifted into the Gentle Fist beginner stance. His hands began glowing with chakra and he gained a grim smile at the now sweating scientist before he began slamming his hands into the points Mizuki had shown him hurt the worst when foreign chakra was shoved into them. Amachi screamed like a person who had been tortured for hours and from where she was still riding her eagle Isaribi clapped her hands over her ears trying to block off the terrible sound and her eyes screwed shut hoping to get the image out of her mind.

Naruto slammed five more palm strikes into Amachi before stepped back and watched as the man's transformation ended as he lost consciousness due to the pain. Making a clone which immediately began making hand signs, he dispersed the water whips holding their prisoner in the air and the clone caught the body in an air prison jutsu. Prisoner secure, Naruto turned to Anko and Heza who had walked over and said "Should I scan him now or do you want to do it at your place?"

"My place. We want to get everything and I don't think you should see some of the stuff this creep's done." Anko said as she stared at the scientist with a disgusted look on her face. Naruto nodded and opened one of the scroll holsters on his vest and caught it as it slid out. Opening what was revealed to be a stasis scroll, he held it open in the air and the clone maneuvered the prison on top of it before the clone dispersed the prison and Naruto activated the seal. Amachi disappeared in a burst of smoke and Naruto nodded at the 'full' kanji that formed in the center of the seal. Rolling it up, he put the scroll back in his holster for safe keeping since Anko only had her coat and no matter how unlikely it was no one wanted the scroll to fall out during transit.

The five eagles who had been circling while the leaf shinobi finished off their opponents dropped from the sky and hovered in front of them. The leader looked towards Heza and said "Where to now Heza?"

Matto joined their group having finished his self appointed clean up duties by sealing everything away in storage scrolls as Heza looked towards Mother Island and said "We continue to Mother Island." The eagle nodded and as one the shinobi jumped into the air and landed on the eagles' backs as they shot forward under them and continued traveling in their previous direction in order to rendezvous with their comrades.

Scene Change: Mother Island Dock

Sasuke looked away from the binoculars and turned off his sharingan. Kakashi had him on lookout in the crow's nest of the head ship of the payment fleet and he had grabbed the binoculars that the sailors posted there used when he had spotted five dots in the sky flying from demon island straight towards them. Placing the binoculars back into their holding rack, he tilted his head and muttered "I'm so glad Naruto didn't do that to me when I was such an asshole to him."

Shaking his head, he leaned over the railing and looked down to the deck of the ship where Kakashi was leaning against the mast reading and shouted "Kakashi-sensei!" When the scarecrow looked up, he continued "Team Maelstrom and Anko are coming in on a group of eagles. They just got finished taking out a group of sound ninja that were on their way here and will be here in about ten minutes."

Kakashi nodded and said "Thank you Sasuke. Continue keeping an eye out will you?"

Sasuke nodded and reactivated his sharingan and began scanning the horizon again.

Scene Change: Mainland Port

Anko and Team Maelstrom watched as the payment fleet along with Team Kakashi slipped out of sight and stopped applying chakra to their eyes. Blinking to let their eyes adjust better to the more normal range of vision they now had, they turned and began walking back towards the Hidden Leaf Village. Behind them, Isaribi gave one last glance at the place that used to be her home before she also turned around and ran over to Naruto's side hoping that their leader could give her a new life like the blond believed.

Fin

Short I know, especially with how long this story took to be updated. But lets face it, I had finished the last chapter with barely anything left of that part. But never fear, because I plan to do another chapter before I do the next chapter for To Be A Master. So keep an eye out for the next part. Speaking of which, what do you guys think I should do next: Jounin Exams or Land of Snow? You guys have until midnight, Eastern time on Sunday to vote. After that, I'm putting in as large a chapter as I can do in two weeks' worth of typing before moving on.

Posted 1/10/2013


	46. AN2

AN2

Alright folks, the votes are in and by vote of three to one, we're going to have the beginning of another CoD segment before I do a chapter for To Be A Master. I'll work on it for two weeks before I post it so that way you have something to hold you over since it'll be around nine weeks before I get back to Shadow clones again. Here's a quick peek at something that will be similar to what I've thought up so far.

"What the hell is that?" Sasuke asked in amazement as everyone laid eyes on the ship that was to take them to the Land of Snow.

"The In Armor Clad. The Daimyo is serious about securing chakra armor technology." Sarutobi muttered as he stared at the masterpiece blend of technology and sealing that rested in the slip assigned to their escort.

"I'll say. That thing looks like a declaration of war." Naruto said with wide eyes as he stared at the massive ship that easily put everything else in the port town to shame.


	47. Call Of Duty Operation Snowcap Part One

47. Call Of Duty Operation Snowcap Part One

Story Start: Village Hidden in the Leaves Time Frame: Twenty Eight Days After Operation Stingray

Team Maelstrom and Kakashi walked out of the movie theater ignoring the surrounding people going on about how great the movie they just saw was. Instead they were conversing with each other about just why they had gone and seen the latest Princess Fuun movie.

"So Kakashi-sensei, why did Lady Tsunade tell us to see that film exactly?" Heza asked as they walked down the street.

Kakashi shrugged and said "Not sure. All she told me was to take you to see the movie and to then head straight to the tower once it was done."

Naruto cocked his head as he remembered a small trivia tidbit that they had seen in the 'First Look' commercials before the movie began. Eyes lighting up, he said "Hey, didn't that infomercial before the movie say that they were beginning to film the next movie within the month?"

"Yeah, so?" Sasuke asked as he put his hands in his pockets and looking bored as ever.

Grinning, Naruto said "So, what if we've been chosen to act as security during the filming?"

Sakura's eyes lit up as she said "How cool would that be? We actually get to see a movie being made up close and personal!"

"Mah, mah, calm down guys. We don't know if that is actually the case yet. But I will agree that it would be an interesting experience." Kakashi said as they turned onto the main road that went all the way from the village's main gate straight to the Hokage Tower.

"Once again, you understate the facts Sensei. Can you imagine all of the autographs we could get if that is our next mission? Ooh, I could find out how they managed to do that one lightning jutsu without actually killing anybody. You know the one that looked like one of Naruto's chakra senbon mine tags going off all over the place?" Matto said as his eyes gained a faraway look. Naruto chuckled not really blaming his fellow lightning user since that had really been an impressive jutsu if it wasn't a special effects job.

"I'm more interested in figuring out how they made that stream of rainbow colored chakra act like an elemental dragon jutsu without any of the actors performing hand signs. I know for a fact it wasn't a stop recording, do the seals and then begin recording again thing since the way their clothes were blowing all over the place had no kind of 'glitch' image for lack of a better word during it all." Heza said.

"Hm, I think I might actually know how they did that one." Naruto said as he easily sidestepped a guy carrying three crates of vegetables who couldn't see where he was going. Seeing Heza staring at him waiting for him to tell her, he chuckled and said "Didn't you notice that even with all that wind blowing loose rocks all over the place, nothing was blown away from the ground itself within that circle?"

"Yeah?" Heza said before she suddenly blinked and slapped her hand to her forehead as she said "Let me guess, a hidden seal in the set that gave the gathered chakra the needed 'instructions' to move that way."

"Bingo!" all three seal using members of the original Team 7 said with grins on their faces. Heza sighed and muttered "Way to take the wonder out of things guys."

Kakashi chuckled and said "Well you asked us Heza." Heza shot a glare at her sensei before shaking her head and increasing her pace to talk with Sakura.

Fifteen minutes of long stride walking later, the two teams were at the tower and in the mission briefing room. In front of them was Tsunade studying a mission scroll handed to her by the Jounin before them with Chunnin on either side of her and Sarutobi leaning against the wall to their right. Tsunade made a mark in the scroll before she gave it to the Jounin who took it with a bow and disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Gesturing for the two teams to come closer, Tsunade said "Team Kakashi, Team Maelstrom, you have been summoned for a mission that you have been asked for specifically." The members of the collective Team 7 traded glances for a moment before the Hokage continued "But before we get to that, Naruto, did you know that you were put in the Hidden Sand Village's Bingo book?"

Naruto blinked before he shook his head and said "No ma'am, I wasn't."

Sarutobi grinned before he pulled a copy of said book out of the decorative Jounin vest he was wearing drawing attention to him before he tossed it towards the blond and said "Well you have. Take a look in the B class section." Catching the book and doing as told, Naruto flipped to the U part of the section and blinked as he found his entry. He began reading aloud for his teammates who were leaning in to see what he saw.

Name: Naruto Uzumaki aka The One Man Army

Age: Around early teens

Hair: Blond

Eyes: Blue (Sapphire)

Distinguishing Features: Three marks on each cheek resembling whiskers

Village: Hidden Leaf Village

Rank: Elite Chunnin

Class: Rapid Response/Heavy Assault

Notable Achievements: Proclaimed hero of the Land of Wave due to how he single handedly eliminated Gato and his illegal business ventures, was said to have fought the Ichibi Jinchuriki to a standstill, was a key member during the failed invasion of the Hidden Leaf village made by the Hidden Sound Village being credited with over ninety percent of the kills made that day.

Notes: An expert in Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, and Kenjutsu, Uzumaki has Chakra reserves to rival a kage. He knows jutsu for each of the five primary elements and is a summoner for the Toad and Fox clans. His most notable technique is the Shadow Clone Jutsu, which he is able to utilize to an unprecedented point, able to create thousands of said clones. A known prankster in his village, he is well versed in trap making and it is advised to never allow him to choose the battlefield. If you ever have the misfortune of having him as your enemy, make sure to have an army with you to use as a meat shield. If said army is unavailable, give your soul to whatever god or gods you believe in because your ass WELL be his.

Everyone felt their eyebrows raise at the last two sentences before they looked up as Tsunade said "Apparently, the Sand would have given you an A rank in their Bingo book but due to their regulations only Jounin are put there."

"I'm more interested in the last two sentences that were put in there. It's highly unusual for the entries in the Bingo book to be so…informal." Kakashi said.

Both Hokage shrugged and Sarutobi said "Rumor has it that the Kazekage's son, Gaara, had that put in there. Whether or not that's true is anybody's guess."

Smirking, Naruto said "Well if it is true, then at least we know the guy's loosening up a bit nowadays."

"Well now that that is out of the way, we can get to your mission." Tsunade said. Immediately the six shinobi in front of her went into mission mode and she nodded in approval as she said "The Daimyo seems to have taken an interest in you Naruto. He has requested you specifically along with Sarutobi-sensei to travel to the capitol where he will brief you personally on your mission. He said that you should pack for extremely cold environments and that you should bring Kakashi with you as well since he will have useful information while you are on the mission." Naruto glanced over at his sensei but said scarecrow shrugged showing he had no clue what their leader was talking about either. "Because of this, I'm assigning both parts of Team 7 to this mission. The Daimyo expects you in the capitol no later than nightfall tomorrow. Dismissed."

Time Skip: Fifteen Hours Later Location: Land of Fire Capitol

Team 7 plus one walked past the rather thick gates that protected the Daimyo's palace. As they walked towards the audience hall where the Daimyo met with anyone from prospective merchants asking to set up shop near his palace to foreign dignitaries of the other Big Five countries, they were watched by no less than a hundred guards from all directions. It set their shinobi senses on alert and made the hairs on the back of their necks raise but they gave no visible sign of the slight discomfort they were feeling. It certainly didn't stop Sakura's eyes from trying to leave their sockets with how much they were darting around as she took everything in with an air of wonder around her.

They were met at the entrance to the audience hall by one of the Daimyo's aids who led them into a side room just off of the audience hall where secure meetings that the Daimyo didn't want any eavesdroppers hearing were held. The room looked like it would fit in as a corporal conference room with how big the table was, easily forty feet long and five feet wide. But what really caught most of the males' attention were the seals of the room. Naruto and Matto both let out appreciative whistles as they stared at the more than two dozen different types of security seals spread along the walls, ceiling, and floor. They knew that once those puppies all activated, not even air would pass in or out of that room never mind any sound. Thankfully, there was a CO2 to O conversion seal etched around the rim of the table so nobody would have to worry about suffocating during a long meeting.

The aid informed them of the proper protocol for the meeting and told them that the Daimyo would be with them within thirty minutes before he bowed and left the room. As soon as he was gone, Matto shot over to the table and began taking notes on the conversion seal etched around it while Naruto headed over to the head of the table where he saw what looked like some kind of projector seal. Blinking when he saw just what it did, he grinned as he thought 'A mental projection seal. Man, I haven't seen one of these things in ages. Pervy Sage only showed me one once and even then he never activated it. I wonder how a non shinobi building supplies the power necessary for this.'

"**What do you mean Naruto?"**

Naruto blinked before grinning as he sent back 'Finally woke up from your month long nap dad?' The big guy had for some reason hit the mattress rather hard a month ago and refused to wake up for anything. All Naruto had gotten from him before he started sawing logs was that he planned on catching up on last year's sleep. Ignoring his father's grumbling, Naruto sent 'You were asleep during that particular lesson, but Jiraiya said that it would take about half of an elite Jounin's overall chakra reserves to power one of these things for more than five minutes due to how hard it is for a seal to both translate mental images and sound and to actually project them for others to see and hear. And the control needed to properly calibrate one of these things is a nightmare.'

He felt Kyubi cock his head as he asked **"But isn't it just a seal based Genjutsu?"**

'You would think so, but you have to remember that most likely this wouldn't be using the same chakra as the person using it. Also, Genjutsu takes place in the target's brain which is a lot less draining than this seal which manipulates the open air around itself so that everyone can see and hear it. Two completely different routes when it comes to doing their jobs. Which brings me back to the question of how they're powering all of these seals including this one.'

"**Try checking underneath the table for an ambient chakra gathering seal."** His father suggested.

Naruto did so and nodded as he saw a rather large seal completely covering the underside of the main part of the table and nodded as he said "Oh yeah, a gathering seal that big would have no problem powering the rest if it constantly recharges itself when this room is not in use.'

He was pulled from his thoughts when the door opened and he heard a wry voice say "Having fun mentally breaking down this room's seals Mr. Uzumaki?"

Snapping his head away and up from the table, the young jinchuriki blushed as he saw someone who could only be the daimyo standing in the doorframe grinning at him. Instantly every shinobi in the room snapped into attention and saluted as they said "Sir!" The man my not have been a shinobi with only the barest of chakra training in order to use certain shinobi items, but this man was the ruler of their country and that position demanded their complete respect, even from the former Hokage that was Hiruzen Sarutobi.

"At ease." The Daimyo said as he entered the room. Naruto quickly vacated his position at the head of the table and rejoined his fellow shinobi as they all took seats at least five chairs down from the Daimyo as was protocol. As the Daimyo sat down, the four people who had followed him in including the aid from before took their own seats near him. All of the shinobi blinked when they recognized the rather famous actress Yuki Fujikaze, AKA Princess Fuun taking a seat immediately on his left.

Once everyone was seated, the Daiyo made the ram hand seal and all of the shinobi trained felt the man's chakra spike for a brief moment. The seals picked up the chakra spike from a person that was 'given' authorization and all of them briefly flashed a bright blue before fading back to neutral black. Security measures taken care of, the Daimyo said "Before we begin, I believe that introductions are required amongst us. To my right is my aid Tai Kamiya and the head of the Land of Fire Navy Admiral Takato Matsuki. To my left is the Princess of the Land of Snow Koyuki Kazahanna, better known by her actress name Yuki Fujikaze and her manager and adviser, Sandayu Asama. Lady, gentlemen, allow me to introduce to you Hiruzen Sarutobi, former Hokage of the Village Hidden in the Leaves. With him are the collective members of Team 7, the village's best rapid response and heavy assault team. Now that introductions have been made, let us begin the briefing."

Placing his hand on the projection seal, the Daimyo closed his eyes for a moment in concentration before a holographic image of a country that Hiruzen and Kakashi recognized as the Land of Snow appeared. As it did, the lights in the room dimmed before completely turning off and the Daimyo began speaking again.

"Six and a half months ago, intelligence reports indicated that the current ruler of the Land of Snow, Doto Kazahana, was making plans to radically expand his domain, with the intent to eventually challenge the Big 5." An image of the man appeared and everybody saw Koyuki flinch at the site of him. Naruto instantly didn't like the guy since even in hologram form he had this air about him that said that he didn't care who got hurt so long as he got his way. "Doto believes that his plan will succeed due to a special armor that has been developed by Land of Snow scientists. It is called Chakra Armor, and while the name leaves much to be desired, it does describe its purpose adequately." Doto's image disappeared and was replaced with an unusual looking set of armor. Naruto and the rest of the shinobi studied it with intense gazes as the Daimyo continued.

"This armor is able to project a shell of chakra around the wearer making them invulnerable to all Genjutsu and all but the absolute strongest Ninjutsu. A person attacking anyone with one of these sets of armor would have to use purely Taijutsu to fight them." The image of the armor disappeared and was once again replaced with the image of the country that flipped on its horizontal axis to show a side view and began turning on its y axis as the Daimyo said "For obvious reasons I do not want Doto to get any steam on this plan of his. I also find the fact that he killed his brother, the rightful ruler of Snow, in order to obtain his throne rather distasteful. His coup de tat left young Koyuki here father less and it forced her to flee the country and assume a new identity. Your mission, Operation Snowcap, will be seeing Doto paying for his violent overthrow of the rightful rulers and will place Lady Koyuki on the throne of the Land of Snow as she should rightfully be. Admiral Matsuki, if you would please explain."

"Of course my lord." the admiral said before he stood as he cleared his throat and said "Operation Snowcap will be a two part invasion of the Land of Snow. Team 7 will be escorting Princess Kazahana into the country with one of our navy's ships acting as tactical support. Once there, most of the members of Team 7 will head to Doto's fortress and take him and as many members of his inner circle out as possible." The image lowered a little before the 'view' shot over the mountains at the coast and across the land before stopping at a blinking red dot on a small plateau nestled in between two mountains. The image then flipped on the x axis before zooming out to show a second red dot in the middle of a valley twenty miles northeast of the first dot. "While most of you will be traveling to Doto's headquarters, Uzumaki will be heading to the shinobi village of the country. There he will use his Shadow Clones to incapacitate the shinobi force there, preferably without slaughtering them all."

"No promises. If I can do it without using extreme measures than I will, but I can't truthfully say I will be able to do so without killing everybody until I get Intel once I'm there." Naruto said as he memorized the location of the hidden village he was being assigned to neutralize.

The admiral nodded and said "Of course. Now, once the village has been made secure, Uzumaki will rejoin with the rest of Team 7 in order to aid in securing the fortress as well. Once it is secured, you will head to the country's capitol where Princess Koyuki will claim the throne."

The admiral sat down and the Daimyo said "In exchange for helping Koyuki reclaim her country, she has agreed to enter into an alliance with us, providing us with some of her country's technology including the armor in exchange for our help in getting the country back on its feet as well as timber from some of our forests among other things. This is where you will be coming in Hiruzen. We have already formed a rough draft of the alliance treaty but it still needs to have a few details hammered out that will be done once Koyuki is instated on the throne. As my proxy, you will be the one to finalize the treaty and act as my signer. I trust that you will make sure it is beneficial to both countries."

"Of course my lord." Sarutobi said with a nod.

The daimyo gave a nod of his own before he took his hand off the projector seal causing it to shut off and the lights to turn back on as he leaned back in his chair. Taking a small paper fan out of his formal robes, the man flicked it open and proceeded to slowly fan himself with it as he studied the shinobi in front of him. Snapping it closed after a moment, the Daimyo leaned forward and said "I do not believe I have to tell you all the importance of this mission. With its completion, both countries will obtain valuable resources that will be used to help make sure that no one will take advantage of them. On this mission I expect all of you to act in the manner befitting of proud shinobi of the Hidden Leaf Village. Admiral Matsuki will be taking you to the ship assigned to your mission. Princess Koyuki, I look forward to hearing of you joining the Court of Daimyos. Godspeed everybody."

The Daimyo stood and everyone did as well to bow to him as he deactivated the security seals and exited the room with his aid following. Once both of them were out of the room, Admiral Matsuki turned to everybody else and said "A carriage with our fastest team of horses is waiting for us. It will take us to Port Kirian where your support vessel is waiting. Lord Sarutobi, there is a seat for you if you wish it. Once there, you will be taken straight to the Land of Snow. If you will follow me." The man strode out of the room with purpose in his steps and the others were quick to follow.

They followed him through the palace to the area where diplomats entered and saw a rather light looking four man carriage hooked up to a team of six horses that were all fidgeting obviously impatient to get going. The three non shinobi and Sarutobi entered the carriage while Team 7 formed a protective diamond formation around it with Sasuke and Matto beside the first two horses, Sakura and Heza taking positions on either side of the carriage and Kakashi and Naruto who were the fastest were behind all of them where they could respond to any threats in any direction. Once everyone was in place, the driver spurred the horses into action and they took off like a shot out of a gun kicking up dust as the shinobi kept pace with them.

Scene Change: Port Kirian

Port Kirian was the Land of Fire's northern most trading port. Stationed on a five mile long peninsula with a line of a hundred foot tall steep artificial hills making entrance by land only possible in two spots that had gates similar to the country's hidden village, it was used mainly by merchants who used the port as a secure base of operations in the area. Due to its size and its strategic position there was a moderately sized army base at its center and a task force of ten Navy destroyer class ships constantly patrolling the area with fifteen more smaller ships stationed in a horseshoe picket formation around the surrounding waters making any attempt to attack the port tantamount to suicide.

The carriage carrying the future ruler of the Land of Snow and her escort pulled up to the entrance of the port used by the military and everyone got out as the guards posted there did a security check. Once they were done checking the personnel and moved to checking the carriage itself and the horses, Admiral Matsuki said "Gentlemen, ladies, while we wait for these fine young men to finish their job, allow me to give you a first look at the ship that will be taking you to your destination." Turning to the right hill, he walked over to a heavily fortified door set inside of it and the others followed him inside into a tunnel that went through to the other entrance and a staircase on their left that went all the way to the top of the hill. Climbing ten flights of stairs, they then climbed a ladder that led to an open trapdoor.

The group came out in a fifty foot tall sentries tower that gave an observer an eagle's eye view of both the port and the surrounding area. Walking up to the edge, the Admiral pointed to a ship docked at the very tip of the peninsula and said "There's your ride gentlemen, the LFNS Infinity." Everyone but Sarutobi felt their jaws drop a little as they stared at the ship that was easily the biggest military ship in the port.

"The 'Grey Ghost' herself, the Daimyo is serious about taking out Doto's regime." Sarutobi said as he eyed the crown jewel of the Navy. The ship was easily around eight hundred feet long with a pointed bow widening to somewhere around a hundred feet wide before tapering down to about twenty feet at the end. The bridge was positioned in the direct middle of the ship and rose a good forty feet into the air. But what really got people's attention were twenty of what were obviously weapons spread across the deck. There were also three very sturdy looking cranes that looked like those used to load cargo ships beside what appeared to be elevators that went down to a lower deck.

Admiral Matsuki looked at the ship in pride as he said "The Infinity is our most advanced ship, the first Leviathan class. Alpha Numeric Designation: LV-1, it is a new breed of battleship. It's a sleek hulled, medium weight vessel. One hundred eight feet wide and eight hundred and nine feet long, her deck is made out of one hundred percent chakra lumber." All of Team 7 chocked on air at the fact that such a large quantity of the extremely expensive wood was used and the admiral smirked before he continued. "Her hull is a blend of high grade steel and chakra metal imported from the Land of Iron. It displaces twenty five thousand tons when fully loaded and has a maximum range of twelve thousand miles. It's top speed is thirty two and a half knots. (37 M.P.H.) With the help of Lord Jiraiya of the Sannin, her hull has had seals applied that makes it virtually indestructible due to the chakra metal constantly absorbing the ambient chakra around it. These coupled with thirty solar energy to chakra conversion seals stationed on top of the bridge give it a chakra shield that is just as good as the chakra armor you will be encountering in the Land of Snow. However, this method of shielding cannot be applied to anything smaller than the Infinity and the Daimyo is hoping that if we study the technological aspects of chakra shielding it can help us tone down the size needed when it comes to doing so by seals. Which would be very much appreciated since the power generation for this model of shielding is enormous."

"I bet it is. Shielding just the first hundred feet of that ship must take at least five kages' worth of chakra per hour." Naruto said and nobody could mistake the awe in his voice.

Admiral Matsuki nodded showing that he was on the mark and said "But as you can see, chakra shielding isn't her only defense. Those weapons you see are a new type of cannon that use seals to charge rounds of five foot long steel rods with lightning natured chakra and magnetically hurl them at their targets. Called MAC guns, they can easily pierce the hull of any other ship they come across and can hit a target as far away as ten miles so long as the gunners have the proper coordinates." Pointing to one of the cranes, the admiral said "That is only the weapons for the Infinity herself. When attacking targets further inland, it has a compliment of fifty All Terrain Vehicles that it keeps in the hanger deck just below that are brought up by the elevators beside those three cranes. Each ATV can hold twenty passengers and the driver and has a smaller version of the MAC gun attached. With them, the Navy can have a presence virtually anywhere."

"A declaration of war against anyone who goes against the Navy if I've ever seen one. I'd hate to see what the Daimyo's army comes up with to try to one up you guys." Matto said as he stared at the MAC gun at the bow of the ship already mentally disassembling what seals that he knew of that could have been used to make it work.

The Admiral's smirk said a good deal about what he thought of their chances of doing that as he said "I certainly won't stop them from trying. It would be rather amusing laughing at them when they fail."

One of the sentries listened to his radio for a moment before he walked over and said "Admiral, the guards are finished with their security checks." The admiral nodded and dismissed the sentry before heading to the trapdoor with the others following.

Thirty minutes later, the group walked onto the pier the Infinity was docked at to see the rather unusual sight of someone in a movie director's cap arguing with a navy personnel who was obviously the captain of the ship. Behind the apparent director was what looked like a full filming crew staring at awe at the ship with most of the cameramen getting shots of the 'giant among men' that the ship represented. Both Koyuki and Sandayu frowned at the site and Admiral Matsuki was quick to follow as he walked up and said "Captain Iroh, kindly explain what is going on here."

The captain turned to see his superior coming and made no attempt to hide the slight relief at the sight of him as he said "This man here seems to think that he and his people have a right to be joining us on our next mission sir. I believe his exact words are 'As the director of the Princess Fuun movies, it is my right and obligation to record her historic mission of reclaiming her throne.' Obviously I cannot allow such a thing considering the Infinity is assigned said mission and having a film crew crawling all over her is a security threat that cannot be ignored."

The director squawked in indignation as he said "Now see here! I don't appreciate you implying that my crew is made out of spies!"

"So you've said many times, but considering the fact that I don't know the complete background history of each and every one of your so called crew, I'm just as inclined to not believe you as the first fifteen times. The Infinity and every member of her crew is my responsibility and I will not allow such a large potential security threat to board her." The captain snapped and Naruto felt the captain's chakra flare in anger at the thought of what he perceived as a threat to his precious ship possibly boarding her and at some point doing harm to her.

The director opened his mouth to retort but snapped it shut as Koyuki said "Enough!" Everyone looked towards her as she continued speaking with steel in her voice. "You apparently fail to grasp the severity of the situation Director. This isn't some fictional story that we can control in a relatively safe environment that you can record. This is going to be one hundred percent authentic danger and none of you have had any kind of training that would allow you to remain unharmed when the fighting starts. Sandayu told you that we would begin filming the next movie once the Land of Snow has been freed from Doto's reign and we will do so. But until that time you will do as you are told and stay here where it is safe. Am I understood?"

"But this historical event must be recorded." The director started before the princess let off an impressive amount of KI for a civilian and said "What part of you are not trained for such a thing did you not understand?"

The director didn't seem to be affected by it though as he shot back "Do you really have so little faith in us princess?"

The princess opened her mouth to say yes but Admiral Matsuki interrupted by clearing his throat gaining everyone's attention. Seeing that everyone was watching him, he said "How about a compromise?"

"Admiral, surely you're not actually thinking about allowing these people to accompany us?" Captain Iroh asked. Koyuki looked like she wanted to question the Admiral's sanity as well but stopped when the man held up a hand and said "I have no intention of allowing them free reign of your ship captain. But I would rather give a little than have one of these rather ambitious people trying to sneak aboard and you having to deal with it while at sea."

"What would you suggest Admiral?" Hiruzen asked entering the conversation.

"The director chooses ten members of his crew not counting himself to come on this trip. They will be constantly escorted by a security personnel for as long as they are aboard. Any and all recordings they make of the Infinity will be handed over to the Navy for censorship before release. If any of them releases information about the ship without our approval then they will face fifteen years in a Land of Fire Navy prison for treason. They must also sign waivers stating that the Navy is not responsible for any injuries they may acquire including death. In turn they will be allowed to record any events that take place on the journey to the country so long as it applies to the mission. Is this acceptable Captain?"

The captain looked like he swallowed something sour but nodded as he said "If it is this or the possibility of having them all try to sneak aboard than I will accept." Turning to glare at the Director who looked like he was about to shout in joy, he said "But make no mistake, if I think you or any of your people are doing anything to threaten the safety of my ship and the people who inhabit her, I will waste no time in throwing all of you into the brig, am I clear?"

The director nodded before he quickly excused himself to pick out the ten people who would be coming. Koyuki and Sandayu both frowned as said adviser said "Admiral, I mean no disrespect, but is this wise?"

The admiral frowned as well and said "Like I said, better have them where we can see them than wondering if they tried to come without our approval. Captain, good luck on your mission." Turning around, he walked over to Naruto and said "Uzumaki, if it would not be too much trouble, I would like you to keep an eye on them alongside Captain Iroh's people."

"Of course Admiral." Naruto said. The man nodded before he continued walking down the pier. Naruto watched him go as he thought 'I hope this doesn't bite us in the ass. There's too much at stake for it to all be screwed up by a bunch of civilians looking to get best film crew of the year awards.'

"**We'll just have to make sure to keep a very close eye on them."** Kyuubi said and Naruto felt the giant fox raise an eyebrow before he said **"You could always keep them in a stasis scroll and have your clones take over their identities. That equipment of theirs can't be too hard to figure out how to operate."**

Smirking, Naruto sent 'Lets not be so hasty just yet. We'll keep that idea under Plan B for if they really annoy us.' His father gave a dark sounding chuckle at that before he closed the link a little and the blond stepped over to the Captain to offer his services in making sure the enemy wouldn't be able to monitor their communications during the mission.

Time Skip: Two Days Later Location: LFNS Infinity; En Route to the Land Of Snow

Naruto knocked on the door to Koyuki's cabin and said "Princess Koyuki, are you in there?"

There was the sound of footsteps heading to the door before it opened to reveal said princess who said "Yes? May I help you with something Uzumaki?"

Naruto nodded and said "If it wasn't too much trouble, I'd like to talk to you about Winter's End."

Koyuki's eyes widened before she grabbed Naruto and dragged him into the room closing the door with a soft slam. Spinning around, she said "How do you know about that?"

Naruto shrugged and said "To be honest, before today I didn't. Kakashi sensei just told me that it was a plan your father had come up with about a year before he was killed that would have brought massive change to your country. He made it a secondary mission to find out everything I could about it and to protect what your father called the Snow's treasure from Doto if he shows any signs of going after it." Gaining a frown, Naruto said "Although I imagine that Doto would already have it after all this time."

Koyuki shook her head before she reached under her shirt and pulled out a grey crystal with flakes of chakra swirling around in it. Taking it from around her neck, she showed it to Naruto as she said "He wouldn't be able to get to it without this."

Naruto took the crystal and looked at it before surprising Koyuki by taking the First Hokage's focusing crystal out from under his own shirt and compared the two. Eyes narrowing in thought, Naruto said "Definitely not a focus crystal like the one I've got. These notches make me think it's more like a key. The chakra inside of it adds to that assumption. Probably acting as a combination of a chakra lock seal." Handing it back, he said "Any idea what it's for?"

Koyuki took the crystal back and put it around her neck again as she said "It unlocks the hope of my country." Sitting down on her bed, she said "Let me tell you about Winter's End, and why my father put almost everything our country had into making it."

Time Skip: Four Hours Later

Naruto stared at the horizon from his spot on the bow of the ship going over everything Koyuki had told him. Even three hours after they had stopped talking he still couldn't wrap his head around what Winter's End could do. The name definitely fit but it kind of worried him. If a device like that could actually change a landscape so thoroughly then it was no wonder why Kakashi had tasked Naruto with protecting it while they were in the country. If Doto got his hands on it and was able to modify it, BAD things could happen. Naruto had swore on his blood to Koyuki that he would do everything in his power from keeping Doto away from Winter's End and that was one promise he would never break even if the apocalypse came.

Time Skip: One Week Later, Midnight

Naruto was sleeping in the cabin assigned to the male members of Team 7 having a nice discussion with his adopted father about the pros and cons of coating your body with various types of chakra during battle when both heard the distant sounds of the general quarters alarm blaring throughout the Infinity. The two traded glances with each other before Naruto quickly left his mindscape and bolted out of his assigned bed. Matto was already up and fully dressed putting on his kunai pouch as Naruto used his absolutely insane speed to do the same. Ten seconds later they were blasting their way down the hall on the ceiling to avoid getting in the crew's way as they made their way up to the bridge. Coming to a stop near where Captain Iroh was barking out orders, Naruto said "What's going on Captain?"

"Sonar's picked up a rather large concentration of metal underwater that was traveling our way. We can only assume it's one of the Land of Snow's submarines. The vessel is currently holding position three hundred yards off our bow" The captain said.

"Sounds like Doto knows we're coming." Sarutobi said as he entered the bridge.

"Or it could just be that we got unlucky in running into a very far reaching patrol." The first mate of the ship said.

"Either way, your mission will be much harder if that ship gets a message back to their headquarters." Captain Iroh said before turning to the crew member working the radio and said "Are we in radio range of the Land of Snow?"

The man shook his head and said "Even with Lord Jiraiya's seals augmenting the strength of our signal, we're still two days out from being able to make any kind of radio contact with that country. Unfortunately, I cannot say whether or not our quarry is in the same situation sir." The radio man suddenly slapped a hand to his ear over the radio headset he had before he said "Sir! The other vessel is hailing us!"

"Put him on speaker. And monitor their transmissions. I want to know if this guy can contact his home." The captain said and the technician nodded before flipping a switch on the console in front of him.

"-eat, this is the Domineer to unidentified vessel, you are trespassing Land of Snow waters. Identify yourself and reason for being here or face destruction. You have two minutes to comply."

"Well now, they're certainly not afraid to show some muscle are they, with a name like that. In Land of Snow waters my left butt cheek." The third mate said with a chuckle.

"I agree, Navigator?" Captain Iroh asked.

The officer standing at the table holding all of the bridge's maps snorted and said "Not even far Captain. We're still a good six days at top speed from coming even close to their recognized waters."

The captain nodded before he strode over to the radio man and said "Put me on son." The technician nodded and handed him a second headset that was already plugged in and he said "This is Captain Iroh of the continued to be unidentified vessel to Domineer. By what right do you have to claim these international waters as your own?"

Naruto, Matto and all of the younger crew members present held in snickers at the captain's first sentence. Naruto instantly felt his snickers disappear when Sarutobi began hand signing to him. Eyes hardening, Naruto created a shadow clone before he took off running out of the bridge and shot down the side of the tower containing it heading to the bow of the ship. Meanwhile, the person on the other end of the radio was speaking.

"These waters have been claimed by our ruler, Lord Doto. _That_ is what gives me the right. Now identify your ship and your reason for being here!"

"Hm, well unfortunately for you, your lord's claim is not internationally recognized so I don't have to do so, sorry." Captain Iroh said not sounding sorry at all causing the helmsman to actually hiccup a couple of times trying to hold in his laughter.

"You will answer me at once or be destroyed!" The voice shouted in anger.

Captain Iroh's eyes narrowed as he said "Would we really? Or would it be you who would be destroyed instead. Choose carefully captain, your next action will determine whether or not you can return to your home. I urge you to think about all of the members of your crew. I seriously doubt any of them plan on dieing today."

The voice on the other end was silent for a long moment before everyone still on the bridge heard the voice say "Fire." An instant later, the crew member at the Sonar station said "Sir! There is a metal object heading towards us at a very fast speed! It's going to hit us in ten seconds!"

"Brace for impact!" Captain Iroh shouted before the ship vibrated a little with a loud thud echoing through it's halls. Everyone relaxed for a split second before they all jumped as an explosion threw water into the air off its bow on the starboard side. On the bow, the original Naruto stared at the spot the water appeared with a raised eyebrow looking as if he wasn't on a ship that was just attacked by an unknown kind of weapon.

Frowning at the water that was falling back to the ocean, Captain Iroh said "Any damage?"

"None sir." The man at the Damage Control station said with a grim smile. "All that whatever that weapon was did to the hull was give it a little flick of the fingers."

Captain Iroh nodded while allowing himself a small sigh of relief before he turned to the clone on the bridge and said "Tell your creator that I want that vessel in pieces."

The clone nodded and the captain turned back to the front just in time to see the original bend his knees before he shot off the deck and dove into the water below.

With The Original Naruto

Naruto breached the ocean surface and used the remaining momentum of his dive to carry him twenty feet down. Once his momentum stopped, he used his water manipulation skills to have it shoot him towards his target. A minute later, he was right over the submarine and he carefully placed ten chakra pills into his mouth and swallowed them. As he felt the almost unbearable rush of extra chakra running through his chakra network, he ran through hand signs before mentally shouting 'Water Style: Raging Whirlpool Jutsu!'

On Board The Infinity

"Turn on the search lights and point it at where the submarine is! I want to know what Uzumaki is doing over there!" Captain Iroh shouted and the order was quickly sent. Flood lights snapped on and swung over to point at where Sonar said their enemy was. Everything was quiet on the ocean for a few short minutes before a massive whirlpool easily one hundred feet wide suddenly spun into existence with no warning whatsoever.

"My god." the helmsman said as his and everyone else's eyes widened at the site of the massive vortex that was now sucking in everything around them.

"Helm! Start pulling us back at quarter speed. I want us a full five hundred yards from the edge of that whirlpool." Captain Iroh said.

"Aye Captain!" The helmsman shouted doing as told quickly. The Infinity's propellers were quickly brought to a halt before they began spinning in reverse bringing the Infinity further away from the giant whirlpool.

'The admiral was right, that kid is not someone to underestimate.' The captain thought as he stared at the spinning force of destruction.

With The Original Naruto Ten Seconds Before Whirlpool Creation

Naruto's chakra surged inside of him before it shot down out of his feet and rapidly made its way down to the ocean floor. It shifted slightly to avoid hitting the submarine since Naruto didn't want to take the chance of it having something to neutralize jutsu on it. Feeling the chakra make contact with the bottom of the ocean, he smirked as he saw the chakra form blades all along it's width. Another stream of chakra shot out of his right foot and quickly raced down in a large arc to connect at the end of the other chakra stream. As soon as it connected, the chakra blades on the main stream began to rotate at a fast speed and the smaller stream began moving the water at the bottom towards the top. Instantly a whirlpool formed opening a cavity in the ocean that began to rapidly expand. The water over his head was quickly sucked into the vortex and Naruto could now breath as he stood on a platform of water that was held in place by his chakra that was held up by four strands of chakra reaching across the vortex giving him a bird's eye view of the destruction that was about to happen.

Naruto watched as the whirlpool rapidly grew in size and quickly began spinning the submarine around in ever faster circles. Then the whirlpool got big enough that the entire length of the sub fit inside the cavity and it dropped through the air before it hit the walls a hundred feet above the ocean floor where the walls were still expanding. It only stayed there for a second though before the spinning water spun it so that its nose was pointing at the midnight sky and began to rapidly spin on its x axis. The ship sunk even further before it crashed into the ocean floor and a horrible screeching sound filled the air as it shredded its lower half to pieces on the rocky surface.

'No one could have survived that.' Naruto thought before he began making hand signs. 'But just to be sure.' "Wind Style: Grand Wind Dragon Jutsu!" The dragon formed over his head and roared its might to the heavens before it shot down past him and tore through the sunken ship like a hand going through tissue paper. Nodding at the knowledge that now for sure nothing living was down there, Naruto cancelled his jutsu and watched as the water quickly lost its momentum and flowed back into place. He allowed the rising water to push his platform up out of the vortex and stood on the turbulent surface for a moment as he bowed his head for those that had just died that had no need to. Silently cursing the unknown captain's bullheadedness, Naruto sighed and thought 'Sometimes I really hate this world, where so many can die just from one man's decision.'

Turning back to the Infinity, which he saw was beginning to head towards him, he began running across the water hoping that they wouldn't run into any more submarines along the way as they continued towards their mission.

Author's Notes: Okay, I know I said I would give this till next Sunday but some of the readers for Master are getting whinny so I'm going to start on that one. Oh, and if any of you are wondering where I got the whirlpool jutsu mechanics from, check out the killer whirlpool myth from Mythbusters. I used both of the rigs the guys made in that episode to make the jutsu work. Ja Ne!


	48. Call Of Duty Operation Snowcap Part Two

48. Call Of Duty Operation Snowcap Part Two Land Fall

AN For the ATVs, picture a steel covered boat with a halftrack passenger area that has a sliding steel cover that goes over it and halftrack treads underneath it.

Story Start: Outer Edge Of Internationally Recognized Land Of Snow Waters

Naruto stood on the bow of the ship with Princess Koyuki on his right side frowning as she held a pair of binoculars to her eyes. Naruto had no problems figuring out what the frown was for due to the fact that his heavily chakra augmented eyes and binoculars combination were picking up a rather large iceberg that might as well have been a mountain which was just over nine and a half miles away and all by its lonesome with a rather worrying amount of potential enemies on them. On his left side, Sasuke frowned as well as the Sharingan in his left eye spun in a lazy circle.

Giving a sharp "Ch!" the Uchiha said "Do they really think that we don't know what they are planning?"

"That depends on whoever is actually on that thing. If anyone competent is, then they must believe that they have an even bigger ace up their sleeves than the Infinity." Kakashi said from where he was looking over Naruto's head with his implanted Sharingan uncovered and also spinning.

"Normally I would say that the three submarines the sonar detected around the iceberg would be quite an ace, but considering what happened with the last one…" Princess Koyuki muttered before trailing off.

"No contest. Especially when you put into account the Infinity's chakra shields. And let's not get started on the MAC guns." Matto agreed from where he was standing on the princess' right side with binoculars of his own sweeping across the iceberg.

"So the question really is are they expecting a quick victory or do they know what happened to the Domineer and are planning to get some revenge as well?" Heza asked from where she was standing on the other side of Matto with her own viewing equipment scanning the ice in front of them. Naruto saw everyone glance at him but chose to ignore it as he continued marking the positions of the so far two platoon strong enemy forces that were spread around the iceberg.

On Sasuke's left, Sakura hummed in thought as she panned her binoculars and said "I'm not seeing much if anything that could potentially be a long range weapon though."

"What do you think Captain?" Sarutobi asked from where he and Captain Iroh were standing a little off to the side.

The captain closed his five segment telescope with a decisive snap as he said "We picked up a radio transmission from the Domineer before it went down, but we were able to jam it before her captain could get more than a couple of words out. More likely than not, this is a set up for investigating any ships heading to the Land of Snow to see if they know anything with the three submarines acting as the big stick if things were to get ugly." Mouth twitching upwards into a smirk, he said "Unfortunately for them, Infinity's stick is much longer." Placing the telescope into the pouch hanging on his waist and bringing the hand back out with a radio, he pressed the talk button on it and said "Captain to bridge, are the firing solutions locked in?"

The radio crackled as a voice on the other end said "Locked and loaded captain. We're just waiting for your order."

Iroh nodded to himself and said "Fire."

Behind them, all twenty of Infinity's MAC guns' barrels simultaneously began glowing as each turret maneuvered to aim at their assigned targets. Ten seconds later, all of the turrets were in position and a sharp "CRACK!" sound filled the air as the first salvo was fired launching thin streams of crackling light out to their targets. A split second later, the water around the iceberg exploded upwards as all three subs simultaneously exploded due to the electrically charged steel rods causing a massive power surge on impact and their reactors went critical. Five of the rods impacted against the iceberg and it immediately began cracking apart at the impact points. Then fifteen of the MAC guns realigned themselves and a second volley completely demolished the ice formation causing massive chunks to fall into the ocean and generating fifteen foot waves as the ten biggest pieces of ice began separating. And then the Infinity fired its third and final volley and the ten pieces shattered into hundreds of smaller pieces leaving the area looking like a fleet of icebreakers had just passed through the area.

Captain Iroh's smirk returned as he said "And that's why the Daimyo had Lord Jiraiya help us with our sealing needs." He turned around and began walking back to the bridge even as he began sending orders through the radio for fifteen of the ship's ATVs to be brought out to collect any of the survivors. He was interrupted however by Sasuke who called out "Captain! We've got fliers coming!"

Spinning around, he walked back over and took out his telescope. Flicking it open, he saw ten figures in the air rushing towards them using wings on the armor that apparently shot chakra out of them and he blinked as he muttered "Intel didn't report flight capabilities on their armor."

"I didn't know they could even produce enough chakra necessary for it, let alone actually succeeding in implementing such a thing." Koyuki, the resident expert of Chakra Armor on board the Infinity said in surprise as she stared at the figures flying towards them.

"Yeah well, if they are coming this way to attack, then it's not going to do them much good." Naruto said and everyone turned towards him and saw him start rapidly going through a rather long chain of hand signs. After the fifteenth hand sign, Sarutobi's eyebrow raised as he recognized the sequence and said "Naruto, I know the Daimyo said that only the absolute strongest Ninjutsu could get through the armor but isn't that a bit overkill as a warning?"

Naruto smirked as he finished the last hand sign and his chakra surged out in a twenty foot tall bonfire and the blond said "I'm the One Man Army old man, I don't know the meaning of the word. Wind Style: Rayquaza's Might Jutsu!"

The wind around the Infinity picked up and swirled around the ship at a fast pace as it began to coalesce over Naruto. Within seconds it had formed into the massive shape of a Quetzalcoatl that was so long it put the Infinity's eight hundred and nine feet length to shame. As the winged snake above the ship let out a loud roar that literally the Infinity's deck vibrate, Sasuke took a step back as his wide eyes told him just how much chakra and absolute control over the supposedly untamable wind element it took to use the jutsu his semi teammate was using. And the blond chakra monster wasn't even the least bit winded for Kami's sake!

Naruto, not caring in the least that he was giving the Uchiha a heart attack with how calmly he had just pulled off an S-Rank jutsu simply as a warning couldn't keep his smirk from growing as the ten flyers seemed to pause before they continued towards the ship again, this time a lot slower, moving forward at almost a crawl and he would bet good money that most if not all ten would like nothing more than to piss in their pants and run home crying to their mommies instead of heading towards a wind jutsu that made the Grand Wind Dragon look like an E-rank jutsu.

Captain Iroh swallowed as he looked up at the monster of wind the arguably strongest shinobi on board had created and he thought 'I've said it before and I'll say it again: I'm glad he's on our side.' Unknown to the captain, every crew member aboard the Infinity who could see the jutsu were having similar thoughts. The director though had stars in his eyes as he made sure one of his cameramen was recording the entire thing from beginning to end and thought 'What a magnificent jutsu! If we could replicate it with special effects, we would when not just one special effects award, but twenty!'

Naruto neither knew of these thoughts, nor would he have particularly cared if he did. All that mattered to him was the princess that was still standing by his side that he had been charged with protecting. If unleashing his second strongest wind jutsu made absolutely sure that the ten flyers didn't try anything then of course he was going to use it. Naruto had absolutely no problems being the 'big stick' guy and he never did. Wave and the recent failed attempt to invade the Leaf were proof of that.

Surprisingly, Koyuki seemed to understand this since after a long moment of staring at the winged snake above her in surprise, her eyes had hardened and she had went back to watching the enemy nin's approach with a determined glint in her eyes. Naruto saw this out of the corner of his eye and both he and his father nodded in approval.

Finally, fifteen minutes later, the flyers reached the Infinity and everyone moved backwards until there was just enough room on the bow for the flyers to land without crashing into each other. Naruto knew he really shouldn't, but he couldn't help the grin that grew from his smirk as all ten of them never took their eyes off him since it was obvious from the sheer amount of chakra that everyone could sense connecting him to the airborne jutsu that it was his. But what really made them nervous was the fact that Naruto wasn't showing any strain from holding the jutsu at all. It just made their decision to surrender in the face of the Infinity's MAC guns seem all the more like the right one.

Time Skip: One Hour Later

The surrender and recovery of the enemy soldiers went a lot more smoothly that it might have otherwise with Naruto's shadow clones helping. An hour after the Infinity's first salvo, the remaining thirty enemy combatants were stripped of their armor and weapons and locked into the brig with warm blankets as the Grey Ghost continued on its way to the Land of Snow.

Naruto was currently in the storage room that was holding said armor and taking the chance the Land of Snow so generously offered to study it before he had to take on a whole shinobi village that was equipped with the technology. He glanced up from the armor that was spread out on a table when he heard the storage room door open up. Seeing that it was Sasuke, he leaned back in his chair away from the armor and said "Can I help you Sasuke?"

The Uchiha stared at the blonde for a long moment causing Naruto to raise an eyebrow in question before Sasuke asked 'How can you do it?"

Naruto's eyebrow stayed raised as he said "Do what?"

Sasuke scowled as he said "Don't play games with me Uzumaki! How can you possibly have enough chakra and control to make a two thousand foot long wind creature and have it just sit there for five minutes without even blinking?! I know you're a jinchuriki but that should be impossible, even for you! You should be in the Infinity's infirmary knocked out cold suffering from Chakra Exhaustion at the very least right now, Tailed Beast in your gut or not!"

Naruto blinked, before he looked down and gave a soft chuckle. This seemed to infuriate Sasuke but before he could open his mouth and get a good rant going, Naruto looked back up with a smile on his face and said "You're not very familiar with the Uzumaki Clan are you?"

Sasuke blinked in confusion and said "You have a clan?"

Naruto blinked before he slapped a hand to his forehead as he said "What the hell is wrong with Tano-sensei back at the academy? How can a teacher who is supposed to teach Land of Fire history not teach about the Uzumaki Clan? I mean, we were one of the Hidden Leaf's greatest allies. Hell, the Uzumaki spiral is in the village's symbol and on every Chunnin and Jounin's vest for Kami's sake! I mean, even Mizuki-sensei told me about it and he's the farthest thing from a history teacher there is!"

Sasuke blinked before he took off his Chunnin vest and stared at the symbol that was on its back. He then looked at Naruto's headband at the swirl part of the leaf and thought 'We have a clan symbol as part of our village's symbol and we Chunnin and Jounin wear another one of them on our vests. How important were these guys?'

He was brought out of his thoughts as Naruto shook his head and leaned forward. Sasuke quickly put his vest back on and gave the blond his full attention as he said "The Uzumaki clan can be traced back as far as the Senju and Uchiha clans. We were actually allies of the Senju, but unlike them, we already had a Shinobi village, the Whirlpool village. I believe we were actually the third village to come about, behind Cloud as the first and Stone as the second. Anyway, like I said, we were allies of the Senju clan, helping out with our sealing arts whenever we could. Or at least we did until our village got wiped out during the Shinobi Wars."

Naruto's eyes closed and Sasuke allowed a frown to form on his face as he absorbed what Naruto was saying. The blond opened his eyes again after a moment and said "One of the survivors was my mother, Kushina Uzumaki, who had been sent to the village before the destruction of the leaf to act as an ambassador of sorts for the two villages. She was trained under Mito Uzumaki, the wife of the first Hokage Hashirama Senju who had the post before but was getting along in years to put it mildly. To my knowledge though, she was the only one to find refuge in the Leaf, the rest were scattered to the four winds." Naruto frowned as he said "The Whirlpool village was destroyed by two other villages working together, the Cloud and Stone. To put it mildly, the Uzumaki clan scared the shit out of everybody else due to the fact that our sealing techniques were generations ahead of anybody else and were put to bloody good use in battle. It took the combined might of two villages to take them down, and if my information is correct, they took out four fifth's of the army that wiped them out. But that doesn't answer your question from before."

Naruto leaned forward and looked at Sasuke and the raven haired Chunnin couldn't help but get lost in those eyes that looked like they could take on the whole world and laugh while they did it. An oddly fitting thing when it came to the blond. He shook that thought away though when Naruto said "There was another reason why the Uzumaki Clan was so feared. It was because of our bloodline."

Sasuke gaped at Naruto as he pointed at him and said "You have a bloodline?! What kind?" If the blond told him it was some kind of a dojutsu like the Sage of Six Paths' Rinnegan he was probably going to drink himself into a coma. And no he wasn't being irrational, when it came to the blond in front of him, that could very well be possible.

As if sensing his thoughts, Naruto smirked for a moment before he said "Our bloodline grants us longevity and a serious case of life force. This means that our chakra is actually anywhere from three to five times as strong as anyone else and we have a _lot_ more of it. From the records I could find, Mito Uzumaki had three times more chakra than her husband and my mother had enough chakra to put all of the current Kages' chakra reserves to shame. I myself currently have enough chakra to create just over six thousand shadow clones and still fight."

Sasuke's jaw dropped like a stone and if he was a cartoon character Naruto was sure it would be on the deck right now with his tongue unrolling a good foot on the floor. Sasuke pointed at him again and his hand was shaking as he said "You can make around six thousand shadow clones? These _are_ the same clones that are solid and equally split your chakra among them right? The same ones that Kakashi can only make four of on a good day and can barely stand afterwards?"

"Yup!" Naruto chirped with a grin and Sasuke's eyes rolled up into the back of his head and he fell backwards in a dead faint. Naruto laughed at the sight even as he shot around the table and caught his younger teammate before he bashed his head on the metal deck.

"**That wasn't nice Naruto."** Kyuubi scolded Naruto even though amusement could be heard in his voice.

"It was funny though." Naruto sent back before he placed Sasuke against one of the nearby crates and went back to studying the armor on the table.

Time Skip: Four Days Later Coast Of The Land Of Snow

The Infinity was a hive of activity as it dropped it's anchors half a mile off the coast of the Land Of Snow near the entry point for the ETVs, an area with high cliffs surrounding a small cove that would allow entry of only the smallest ships that Princess Koyuki had visited once. This cove was at the end of a series of mountain passes that could eventually lead the Land of Fire forces to Doto's fortress.

The crews working the elevators were moving double time as they worked on getting twenty ATVs up each elevator as fast as they could and the crane operators were doing the same as they maneuvered them over the side of the ship and lowered them into the ocean. The ATVs in turn were quickly making their way to the cove with the first ATV already making its cautious way up the path looking for any traps or other signs of enemy presence. Each ATV had a Naruto clone on board working as radio units in order to prevent anyone from intercepting transmissions while the original Naruto was currently boarding the ATV that was next to go up the middle elevator with Princess Koyuki and Sandayu already on board next to Sarutobi. As the two strongest shinobi among the teams sent, at least one of them would be with her at all times now that they were finally making landfall. The rest of the teams were spread amongst the other ATVs with Kakashi in the first and Sakura catching a ride on the last.

As the elevator began rising, Naruto focused on his mental link with his clones and sent out 'Alpha to bridge, do you copy?'

On the bridge, the clone that Naruto sent there cocked his head and said 'Bridge here, I copy.'

'Bridge, see if Radio's picking up any com chatter from the Hidden Village.'

'Copy that.' Bridge sent back before the link went silent for a couple of moments before he came back with 'Alpha, bridge, Radio states that there has only been one radio transmission to the village since we've entered range, an order for a Nadare Rouga and his team to rendezvous with Doto that was sent ten minutes ago. The message didn't say why, but I think it's safe to take a guess that Doto is going to be doing a bit of travel.'

'Hm, what are the chances Doto knows we're coming you think?' Naruto asked as the crew of the Infinity hooked the ATV to the crane and it began rising again.

'Considering what happened four days ago? Potentially high. You guys be careful out there.'

All of the other clones sent confirmation down the link and Naruto gave his own and sent the link to the back of his head. Looking around as the crew aboard the ATV unhooked the four straps holding it and then slid the cover of the vehicle closed, he thought 'Here we go.' Glancing out of the tempered glass that acted as a viewport he saw the ATV pull away from the Infinity and join the line of ATVs heading to the coast.

His head cocked to the side as he heard the clone in the first ATV send 'This is Alpha One to all units, way is clear, I repeat way is clear.' Turning his head to face Sarutobi, Naruto said "The path's clear."

Sarutobi nodded as he leaned back in his seat and said "Then we best get comfortable, this is going to be a long two hours."

Naruto nodded as well as he leaned back in his own seat. Around him, the crewmembers of the Infinity settled themselves in for a long ride as well as they began checking over their equipment one last time. Outside, the rest of the ATVs began slipping up the beach and entering the cannon pass after their leader.

Two hours later, the roof of the ATV carrying the future hope of the country they were in rolled up revealing its occupants as Naruto stood up from his seat. Making a shadow clone before turning to face Koyuki, he gave a short nod and said "Your Shinobi Village will be under your command again soon Your Highness. In the meantime, please stay safe."

Koyuki nodded and said "Stay safe as well Uzumaki, and good luck."

Naruto smirked and said "I will." Giving a quick salute to Sarutobi, he said "See you later Old Man."

Sarutobi nodded and said "Good luck Naruto."

The blonde nodded as well before he turned around and shot out of the ATV fast enough to blow the loose snow around them up in a rather close semblance of a dust cloud as the Elite Chunnin made his way through the mountain pass on foot and quickly dropped out of sight.

As the roof was rolled back over the ATV, Koyuki continued staring in the direction Naruto went and thought 'Stay safe Uzumaki.'

Chapter End

Next time on Shadow Clones: Naruto makes his way into every country's bingo book as he takes on a hidden village with no one but his clones to help. And the men and women of the Infinity send Doto packing when he comes to pay a visit.


	49. REALLY UNFORTUNATE AN

(Apparent) Computer Suicide

Hey guys, bad news I'm afraid. It would seem that my laptop has decided to end it's life because I just tied to turn it on and the light at the bottom didn't even turn on. Which really sucks because I had finally passed the five page mark on my Time Traveling Prince chapter that I had been having so much trouble with. And since I can't transfer anything to my new desktop without it on, all of my current stories are going to have to be put on hiatus of an unknown time until I can get THAT worked out at the computer store. Still, I'm not about to leave you hanging if I can help it, so keep an eye out for a little something that I just thought of two days ago. FE Awakening fans will probably get a kick out of this one I'm sure: Lv. 20 Grandmaster Sasuke Uchiha.


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